2022 Outdoors

[Grassmarket]

There are actually two young Aleknas coming up - have been setting age group records for a while.

Just looked it up - Mykolas (this one) & Martinas.

[Occasional Hope]

Alekna junior Is looking like the real deal, isn’t he?

[Chafford1]

Below par race by Hodgkinson who got boxed in but Moraa very strong in the home straight.

[Occasional Hope]

Mary Moraa announces herself as a real medal contender.

[Ursus]

Some high class spearing in Stockholm. Peters 90+ again while Chopra usurps Helander for the longest PB under 90 with another NR of 89.94. 3 others over 88.50.

[marra]

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.

I never claimed my opinions were more valid than anyone's.

However, you keep insisting on talking about the American fans you read and what they are saying. I'm merely pointing out that I *am* one of those fans living in America. You can't say "let's listen to what these people in America are saying" but then ignore someone in America who disagrees with you.

Also, seeing as you keep mentioning Lets Run - here's a twitter thread from one of the Lets Run reporters, Jonathan Gault - https://twitter.com/jgault13/status/1541236751942922240 - about the attendances. You'll see that plenty of the responses to that, and the tweet he quotes, mention the same factors I outline above.

If you want to have a discussion about interest levels in the US, fine. I would agree that the size of the venue for a WC looks painfully small. Hopefully we'll see it crowded every day. If we don't that *is* a real problem.

But choosing this specific meet - with all the other factors surrounding the timing/location of it - to make a wider point is as absurd as saying the Manchester champs attendance this year are representative of the interest in the UK.

And FWIW, I would argue that track and field interest - and indeed tv coverage - is poor around the world. We shouldn't be trying to points score about "this country being worse than us", we should all be worried about the wider picture.

[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.

[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

[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.

[Chafford1]

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

[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.

[Pierre Johansson]

I was being a bit cheeky. Give me Eugene everyday over those places. And I'm not even a fan of the people of Oregon (although there are apparently some beautiful scenery in that state).

[Occasional Hope]

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

[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.