2022 Outdoors

[Ladyloz]

Haven't totted up numbers and compared with other years or anything but my feel is that more College athletes than usual have gone on to perform well at USAs and qualified for the team. Will be interesting to see how many perform well at Worlds.

If I was to pick 1 college athlete to do really well in Eugene it would be Trey Cunningham. Yes he's been running plenty but he's just been running sprint hurdles not doubling up in other events and relays like Steiner. He is a really great technician "silky smooth" as a certain Welshman might say. Holloway should have run the final last night and made a statement to his rivals as Noah Lyles did. Great win for Roberts but he's very inconsistent and Devon Allen looked like he may have picked up an injury.

[LuckySpikes]

Mu is beatable at Worlds. Keely should go in with that attitude (I'm sure she will)

Absolutely she is (I've been saying it all season). Our American friends on the T&FN forum have built her up into some unbeatable goddess without considering a) that she may not be as good this year and b) Keely may be better than last year. So far this year, the former looks true whilst the signs from Keely's indoor 1:57.2 indicate that the latter may also be true if she can get 100% sharp in 3 weeks' time.

Tactics will be key - nearer the time, I'll outline how I think Keely wins (hint : the 100m between 500 & 600 is where the first key move needs to be made.)

[Chafford1]

Have to echo this, Wilson almost had Mu there. Athing still a hot favourite, but I could see Ajee or Keely beating her.

A touch of complacency by Mu by the look of it. She was still able to on the afterburners in the last 20 metres of the race to win. I doubt this will happen again in the World Championships.

[LuckySpikes]

Mu isn't in the shape she was last year. She's been very conservative in the third 200, perhaps not confident of pushing it there in case she's spent for the last 200. If Keely can get herself in tip-top shape by Eugene I feel quite confident that she'll beat Mu (and Wilson, though I don't see her as a big threat to Keely).

[trickstat]

Mu has had Covid which may be a factor.

[marilyn1]

I would not be surprised id somebody else,like Moraa surprised. She ran sub 51 and 1.57 low at the Kenyan trials.

[marilyn1]

I don't think Abby Steiner should focus on the 200 (and DEFINITELY not the 100) with her sluggish starts. She'll have to face both the Namibian intersex athletes and the Jamaican Stephen Francis products in the future, and I can't see her beating them... at least not on a consistent basis. Her future lies with the 400 IMO. She'd be scary fast in that event.

She has amazing foot and comes on at the end with outstanding speed. She says that she has not been disadvantaged by her massive progress this year.

[marra]

More depressing than I thought possible were the official spectator numbers for 4 days at Eugene's track and great athletics
No day was more then 3600 ,the max for one day. We now know this years WC spectatator figures are a maximum in the Stadium of 17000.zThe Amercans promised 30K and the WA accepted it

I mean, what were the attendances at the UK champs. Do we think that is representative of the likely crowds at the CGs next month?

The US champs are less than a month ahead of the WCs in the same location.

I think people forget at times quite how large the US is. Oregon alone is bigger than the whole of the UK in terms of land mass, with only 4m people in it (so about 1/16th of the UK population).

Unless you live in Oregon, two trips there in the space of a month is going to be very expensive for most people.

If the numbers are low next month, it's a fair criticism. But it's kinda unsuprising that they are low for this meet. Disappointing, sure. But unsurprising.

[marilyn1]

I mean, what were the attendances at the UK champs. Do we think that is representative of the likely crowds at the CGs next month?

The US champs are less than a month ahead of the WCs in the same location.

I think people forget at times quite how large the US is. Oregon alone is bigger than the whole of the UK in terms of land mass, with only 4m people in it (so about 1/16th of the UK population).

Unless you live in Oregon, two trips there in the space of a month is going to be very expensive for most people.

If the numbers are low next month, it's a fair criticism. But it's kinda unsuprising that they are low for this meet. Disappointing, sure. But unsurprising.

The track fans in both the locale, wider oregon and the USA are also upset and surprised and I have not seen your points expressing reasons fully replicated. Somebody mentioned the attendance figures as much larger at the old Hayward Field a few years back for a major national meet.
A cool windy day at Manchester doesnt really compare with the high quality meet a couple of weeks before the WC in very pleasant weather and the alleged support for the sport in the area. Apparently some fan said the price of seats was 100 dollars. A similar plethora of posts by fans on Letsrun recently was very pessimistic about the future of the sport in the USA as to spectators. I wonder if we could have seen our nationals having a bigger attendance if the trials had been at Birminghsm or a refurbed CP or even London's OG Stadium.

[jjimbojames]

I think previous years won’t tell the true story for the WC - attendance at USTAF if the WC/OG are in another country will be higher. If you wait a month, you get to see the US stars and the global ones, for the same air fare. Who wouldn’t do that. British Trials in 2017 had lower attendance than the WC.

As for the British Champs - I would put money that attendance would be higher in Birmingham than in Manchester. I feel for the people north of Birmingham, having to travel far and wide so much, but the sport needs to be in a location most people can and will travel to without too much of a travel time. English Schools is at Manchester in a few weeks, and the vast majority of counties will be hoping for a return to Birmingham, I’m sure - I imagine parent attendance will be lower than Birmingham.

[trickstat]

Manchester has been a handy compromise for the English Schools with Birmingham unavailable and Don Valley having gone. I think Gateshead is a better facility but its location makes it a nightmare for the south-west and south coast in particular.

[Sovietvest]

Adele has officially switched to Jamaica (see her WA profile). I wonder if she’ll do the 8/15 double now? Ironically, it should free up spaces in the GB team but because of the importance of WA rankings it actually now makes it less likely Ellie Baker will get selected because Adele will now appear above her on the 800 ranking list.

[Occasional Hope]

I imagine she will, as she ran both at the Jamaican trials. She was third in the 800.

[CAML]

Spectators don't attend our national champs. Holding it in a cavernous venue like Alexander stadium makes for a poor spectacle for the watching viewer at home. I really enjoyed this years champs in Manchester, the quirky setting made it feel like a shared experience for athlete, spectator and viewer. The love for Azu, Burgin throwing up or Lake having a domestic with her dad all added extras to three days of mostly good competition.

[trickstat]

Holding it in Birmingham may have also resulted in similar issues to Eugene with locals not attending because they are saving their money, goodwill, annual leave etc to attend the Commonwealth Games.

[Ursus]

Holding it in a cavernous venue like Alexander stadium makes for a poor spectacle for the watching viewer at home.

It’s also uninspiring for athletes and spectators. Much better to hold any event in a smaller stadium where whatever crowd there is will be nearer the action and might even generate a bit of atmosphere.

[Ladyloz]

I've always felt British Champs should rotate, rather than holding them in the same venue year after year.

[marra]

The track fans in both the locale, wider oregon and the USA are also upset and surprised and I have not seen your points expressing reasons fully replicated. Somebody mentioned the attendance figures as much larger at the old Hayward Field a few years back for a major national meet.
A cool windy day at Manchester doesnt really compare with the high quality meet a couple of weeks before the WC in very pleasant weather and the alleged support for the sport in the area. Apparently some fan said the price of seats was 100 dollars. A similar plethora of posts by fans on Letsrun recently was very pessimistic about the future of the sport in the USA as to spectators. I wonder if we could have seen our nationals having a bigger attendance if the trials had been at Birminghsm or a refurbed CP or even London's OG Stadium.

I mean, I'm a track fan living in the USA. So I know a bit about what I'm talking about here. And every conversation I've read about the attendences have outlined similar reasons to those I have.

I'm sure the numbers were down from what they have been in other years. But, as jjimbojames points out, in other years there wasn't a higher profile event, in the same location, less than 4 weeks away. Then add in that we've already had the Pre Classic AND the NCAAs (only 2 weeks before these trials) at the same location.

Consider this hypothetical. The WCs are going to be held in Moscow. The British champs, held 4 weeks before, will ALSO be held in Moscow. So will the British Diamond League AND the British university champs that year - all in Moscow. Would you be surprised if turnout for the trials wasn't great?

Because that is essentially the distance from where I am to Eugene. And I live pretty much in the middle. For anywhere on the east coast, add another 1000 miles onto that.

Sure it is easier if you live on the west coast but we're still talking about large distances. Seattle is the nearest really big city to Eugene and that's the distance of London to Paris. San Francisco is the next nearest and that's London to Berlin.

Then add in things like the fact that the USA has terrible holiday rules for many people and it's not hard to see why numbers were low. Christ, they weren't even smart enough to hold the trials when students would be around at the University to pad the numbers.

We can be disappointed they were low whilst understanding why that might happen. If the same thing happens next month, that would be a real problem. But we shouldn't ignore geography and other factors just to try to prove a point about the US's supposed lack of interest in the sport.

[Chafford1]

And the population of Eugene itself is only 170,000, so not much of a local hinterland to fill an athletics stadium.

[marra]

Yeah, as I said in an earlier post, Oregon is the size of the UK and has only 4 million people in it. The only way they were going to fill this was with out of state people and I just don't see that happening when those people likely had to choose between the US champs and the worlds.

[Pierre Johansson]

She has amazing foot and comes on at the end with outstanding speed. She says that she has not been disadvantaged by her massive progress this year.

She's already run two sub-49 400 relay splits this spring/summer, so if the US team gives her a chance to run on their 4x400 team at the World Champs and she runs a low 48, maybe she'll focus on that instead of the 200. If the intersex athletes from Namibia are not banned from running with the biological females, and if, let's say, some talented Jamaicans like the Clayton twins and Brianna Lyston join Stephen Francis' training group and show up with braces (like all his female athletes do when they've joined him) within a few years, Steiner, and DAS too for that matter, would probably have to run 21.4 to even medal in the 200 in the future.

[LuckySpikes]

At the Serbian Championships Angelina Topic jumped 1.96 on her third attempt to equal the World U18 Best, adding 1cm to her PB from a few weeks ago - https://www.european-athletics.com/n...-championships

[marilyn1]

The American fans on social media Forums that I read especially LR , have said constantly in many posts on numerous occasions that interest in athletics continues to fall in the USA despite there being numerous reasons why it's down to average spectator numbers of about 3000 in recent days at Haywards Field. One of the reason why the major national tv coverage of athletics in the usa is considered by TF Forum members to be rubbish is the tv companies regard the interest in track and field to be of no longer what it has been. -Your views on this topic are no more valid than others,living in the USA or not.