2009 masters outdoor nationals to Clermont, Florida
USATF masters delegates today chose Clermont, Florida, to host the 2009 masters national outdoor championships, beating a bid from Mt. SAC east of Los Angeles, reports a delegate at the Indianapolis USATF annual meeting. The national indoor meet in 2009 returns to Boston — because nobody else entered a bid. (Correction: Nope, Boston won’t do 2009.) The Clermont bid was a surprise to most in the room. Apparently only the executive board of Masters T&F knew about the bid. Clermont is the home of the National Training Center, and its Eurotan track looks fast. However, the nearest school dorms are said to be a half-hour away, so most athletes will have to book motel and hotel rooms.
The Clermont bid was narrated by the NTC’s track coordinator, Don DeNoon — an icon of American race walking and a former record holder.
The Mt. SAC bid was doomed when Mo Haneef, masters vice president of the USATF Southern California Association, told the delegates that the association had not been involved in the bid. My source says Mark Cleary and Skip Stolley of the association engineered the bid on their own — but without USATF SoCal Association cooperation or involvement. Many association officers didn’t even know Mt. SAC would be a candidate until Nov. 12, I’m told.
Clermont returns the masters nationals to a hot weather venue again. The 2006 Charlotte masters nationals were nearly shut down due to a heat emergency. The 2007 masters nationals will be in Orono, Maine, and the 2008 masters outdoor nationals will be in Spokane, Washington. The last time the masters nationals were held in Florida was 1999, a debacle at Disney’s Wide World of Sports complex.
Clermont is in Lake County — nearly smack dab in the middle of Florida. Interestingly, the 2008 WMA world indoor championships will be in Clermont, France.
13 Responses
Ken, check your facts on some of this.
You are off on or simply omitted the following important points:
1. There was no bid whatsoever for the 2009 Indoor Championships and it was not awarded to Boston. Boston does not want it! No one else has stepped up either — at least not yet.
2. The Clermont bid for 2009 was relatively well known ahead of time; they are also bidding for the 2008 NCCWMA Championships — I had to leave before that came up in the joint meeting with Masters LDR.
3. If you want to do the journalistic thing, find out what the story is behind the contentious bid from SoCal/Fleet Feet for the meet. There was clearly a lot of conflict between people in the Southern Cal Assn, but it was impossible to sort out what was behind it. That played a significant role in how many delegates voted. The bid was not just Mt. SAC, but a bid for a dual site meet at Mt. SAC and Cal Poly Pomona; the LOC was proposing and entirely late afternoon/ evening schedule to avoid the 100+ heat that is typical there in late July/early August (the proposed dates) — the southeast is not the only part of the country with hot weather in the summer. I hear it can be pretty hot in Spokane in the summer too.
4. Don DeNoon made it clear that if it is decided that evening sessions are preferable at Clermont they can do that.
5. In its presentation, Clermont made it clear that the proposed headquarters “hotel” is a time-share resort some distance away. The rate for up to 6 people in a very comfortable looking unit with its own cooking facilities is $119/night. That’s with 2 bedrooms and a sofa bed in the living room. Even at 3 in a unit that’s only $40/person/night. Not bad!
6. The 2008 WMA Indoor Championships is in Clermont-Ferrand, France — you might say that is nitpicking, but that’s the name of the city, not Clermont.
It could be very hot in Orono this next August – we had the same heatwave this past August that was in Charlotte. No part of the country is exempt from that. The message that I hope came out of the Charlotte fiasco is that meet directors MUST be FLEXIBLE in scheduling and be willing to change if extraordinary weather demands it.
Had the Charlotte meet director altered the schedule to have the afternoon events in the evening most of the difficulties with the heat could have been avoided.
It may be lovely for sprinters to sprint in the extreme heat but for middle distance and distance runners it is not only not nice – it can badly impact performance. Not all of us can pack up and move to a hot area of the country to acclimate to extreme heat.
Regardless of the physical location of the outdoor national masters meet, some sort of common sense must prevail when it comes to scheduling middle distance and distance events. Shelter from the sun needs to be provided for officials and athletes, cold drinks need to be available for all, and events must be moved to cooler times of day if the weather is too hot for most people. For many of us excessive heat can be life threatening – it is a masters meet- some of us are older – heat exhaustion and heat stroke are not fun and games for either the officials nor for the athletes.
So – where will the 2008 meet be held? It is my understanding that 2007 is the last one for Boston.
The Mt. Sac Bid was in proper order with everything signed off. In fact the President of the Association and the Executive Vice President along with the Southern California Chairman of officials were all part of the Bid presentation team whom were all supporting the So Cal Fleet Feet third party bid. This was not an Association bid–it was a club bid with the support of the people I mentioned. This was a case of an individual putting his own agenda before the wishes of the Association–He had already voiced his opinion and had been rejected by the people in the Association above him. Bottom line– it was inappropriate for him to maliciously voice his opinion at that presentation meeting and confuse people which ultimately hurt the California bid. Just thought I would shed a little light on this subject.
It was hot the last two days of the meet the last time (2002) the national meet was in Orono. In fact, as I remember, by the time the last events were run on Sunday, the temperature was around 95. The good news was the humidity was pretty low and I found the conditions pretty bearable. Actually, the last event I competed in was on Saturday when it was hot, but not as hot as it was on Sunday. Different strokes for different folks, I enjoyed the heat on Saturday as I was in the javelin, an event like sprinting where heat up to a point is preferable as it loosens the old arm up.
Mary, as I recall the indoor nationals was in Boston 2006, NYC 2007, which Boston agreed to host after NYC backed out, and Boston again in 2008. I’m guessing that the New England Association would rather have another association help shoulder the load of hosting the meet.
Living in New England I’d love to see the meet in Boston every year, but I’m sure the logistics and expense of hosting the meet can be prohibited.
I am not sure of the scenerio above – I thought it was 2006 that was supposed to be in NY – but I could be wrong – I have been wrong once or twice in my life! (that is a joke folks).
I do not know why the NE Association does not want to continue to host the indoors year after year after year after year – as it has done – with the exception of the Boise meet – and from what folks have written on the old blog – it is clear that moving it around the country would be in the interest of many potential competitors. It is great for me to have it in Boston. I live just up the road a piece, I can get my very small club to cobble together a relay team or two – from members who otherwise would not be at the meet, and I need not pay for a hotel, airfare, or have to drive far in what could be bad weather. However the indoor meet needs to move around to allow competitors from places other than the northeast to be able to compete without breaking the bank.
Just imagine if the national outdoor meet were in the same place 11 out of 12 years!
It is alot of work to put on the meet, NE has a great deal of experience but there is still an enormous amount of work that goes into hosting it. It is time for some other association to step up and make a reasonable bid.
There are a few articles in the archives that explain NYC opting out of the 2007 indoor championships (feb 28 & mar 31 are two of the articles on the venue change). I remembered the change because I was looking forward to competing in the 2007 NYC meet at the 168th St.Armory. It would have been my first nationals in the 55-59 age group. I grew up in metro NY and also competed on the old armory surface back in college, so I was anticipating running on the new track that was installed a few years back.
The indoor meet should be held in an area where indoor track is common place, and where the facilities are available to host it. This probably excludes most of the south and the southwest. It should rotate between the midwest, northeast, mid atlantic, and mid south regions, but only the New England Association seems willing to step forward to host it. Maybe it’s time for the governing body of masters track to bypass the bid system, and work with another association (besides NE)to secure (rent) a suitable indoor facility, and work with the local association to host the meet.
What a joke. If they did not learn their lessons in Charlotte, they are going to host the meet the same weekend in even a hotter humid location. When are they going to get it right and put the athletes first when choosing a location and date. If you insist on having this meet in the most miserable places can you at least have them at different times of the year. So you made my decision for me what meet to compete in. I will go to Vancouver to compete in 70 degree weather at the World Police and Fire games the same week. I will never put myself through another Charlotte fiasco again where I only get four throws because of unexpected weather. Again, what a joke
If the nationls were in Clermont today, December 7th, the weather would be wonderful. It’s low 70’s with 54% humidity at 2 pm EST. But the first week in August is another story. The historical average high is 92 with an 82% chance of being above 90. And there is a 99% chance of what the weather service describes as a “sweltering day.” That’s a day with high temperatures and a dew point over 70 degrees. OUCH!
I went on line to look at the local Clermont temperature and humidity records for the last 6 year period, on the dates of the 2009 Nationals. As stated above, the temps are in the low 90’s, but the average humidity is in the low-mid 80%’s. Compared to Charlotte in 2006, the average humidity was in the low 70’s. I also looked at a picture of the track, and while it’s a great layout, there are no lights. How can I become an honorary policeman or fireman, so I can go to Vancouver?
It is true there are no lights in the picture. However, the delegates were assured that the cost of bringing them in is minimal (I seem to remember hearing the figure $500 — whether per day or for the duration of the meet I don’t recall — and that it is the intention to do so if the Games Committee will sanction a schedule in the evening. The Mt. SAC bid was to do the meet entirely under the lights, forcing folks from the east coast to spend an additional night in California and miss work on Monday unless they want to take a red-eye back (for those of us who work). Why were they suggesting a night meet? Because they reported average highs in the upper 90s to over 100 on those days. There weren’t great choices this year.
There is currently no seating for spectators in Clermont. Is that going to change before the meet?
I’ve been reading all of the comments about the heat in Charlotte and the expected heat in Clermont. Some of you may remember the heat of a couple of meets that were held in Spokane. I had looked forward to those meets so I could escape the Florida heat in August. Instead I found it was even hotter in Washington.
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