2009 Clermont nationals strand multis championships
This is what happens when organizers of masters nationals don’t publicize their dates expeditiously. Because of contract wrangling, Clermont, Florida, only recently disclosed July 9-12, 2009, as dates for the USATF outdoor masters nationals. That weekend, however, had been claimed for the 2009 USATF masters multi-event championships (decathlon, heptathlon, etc.) So now they’re in a bind. Becca Gillespy, an organizer of the meet, writes me: “Next summer, the Masters Multi-Event Championships will return to King’s High School in Shoreline (Washington). We were planning on having it the weekend of July 11-12, but it looks like that will now conflict with Masters Outdoor Track Nationals. We would like some feedback from interested athletes about good dates later in the summer.” You can write Becca directly at becca@polevaultpower.com, or post a comment here. For shots of the 2006 meet held at the same site, click here.
7 Responses
It’s Clermont for me..no question about it.
Why are the national multis not held in conjunction with the nationals? Further, it seems, from a multis perspective in a world championship year, the nationals are held too close to the world championships. My vote would be to move the multis earlier (last week of June) in 2009. Going forward, I think it would be great to hold the deca/hept as part of the outdoor nationals.
Holding the deca and hep at overall masters nationals is out of the question. Logistics would be a nightmare, since most pits and rings are already in use for the open events. And where would U put the pentathlon?
Also, many deca/hep folks like to enter individual events.
Yes, the WMA world meets hold decas, but they have the luxury of multiple stadia. And the meet lasts close to two weeks, giving multis entrants time to recover.
But USA masters nationals simply can’t accommodate deca and hep.
We’re looking at the weekend of August 15… I know this might conflict with the Senior Games for some, but that is not a USATF event. Any later conflicts with our high school football season, any time in July conflicts with Track Nationals and Worlds, and our meet directors aren’t interested in going as early as June.
While I can’t speak for the others listed below, I do know that at least three top place finishers in the 2006 National Deca meet have qualified for a number of individual events for the National Senior Games (Vance Jacobson (M60), David Ortman (M55) and me (M50))through the recent Washington State Senior Games. Senior Games may actually be a conflict.
Becca, I totally agree with you, finding a date that pleases everybody: athletes/organizer/facilities is IMPOSSIBLE.
Anybody competing in M T&F should be greateful that there are people who undertake that difficult job providing meets for us.
Schedules will “collide”
If one knows a better way, PLEASE LET ME KNOW! I have been putting on meets for nearly 20 yrs.
Christel Donley
Becca:
Schedule the 2009 Deca/Hepta meet for whatever weekend works best for you, the organizers and volunteers.
Whichever weekend you pick there will be some who can and will attend and some who won’t -as Cristel just pointed out, finding a date that accomodate and pleases everybody is impossible.
As one who attended the 2006 Deca/Hepta meet at Shoreline, I thorougly enjoyed it and found it to be great -gret settting, well organized and very well run. Kudos to Mr. Gouge and all of you for putting on a fine meet.
I, and many others I know, look forward to attending the 2009 Deca/Hepta meet at Shoreline. We appreciated what you’re doing for us multi-eventers. Do keep us posted.
-Grant
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