Will Joe and Jane Masters have a say on 2008 nationals?
Intrigue is the word when it comes to selecting a host city for the USATF National Masters Outdoor Track & Field Championships. Maybe mystery is a better word. That’s because the folks who vote on where to put the Big Dance generally have little advance knowledge. Certainly the grass roots don’t have much of a say. The prime example of this bass-ackward process was in December 2002, when masters delegates at the USATF national convention chose Honolulu for 2005, and in a shocker tapped Charlotte for 2006 — even though the 2006 pick wasn’t supposed to be made until December 2003.
We know Orono, Maine, will host the meet in August 2007 — its third bite of the apple. So the big question at the Jacksonville USATF meeting in less than three weeks is: Where will the 2008 meet go?
Typically, two or three cities bid for the meet.
Typically, only a handfiul of people know the identities of the candidates until the national convention.
This year, let’s try something radical — learn the candidates beforehand. Wouldn’t it be nice if masters who don’t attend the national meeting have some influence on the site selection? We’ll see.
I’ll try to pin down the cities this week.
Meantime, I’ll hazard a guess on one of them — Eugene, site of the 2008 Trials. As long as Hayward Field gets all dressed up, Oregon might as well piggyback the masters — and give Westerners some relief after two years of East Coast travel.
3 Responses
Eugene is always a great place to hold a masters track meet, or any track meet for that matter. Past meets have attracted large numbers of participants for National Masters Track Outdoor Track meets.
On the other hand perhaps the good folks in Eugene who will be putting on the Olympic Trials will be pretty tied up with the big dance and will pass on hosting another big meet in the summer of 2008. Time will tell, personally I am all for Eugene in 2008, 2009, 2010 etc.
Sacramento!
I entered my first national masters meet 8-years ago and have enjoyed every one of them. I enjoy visiting different cities across the countries. My favorites were Hawaii, Orano, and Eugene. I am a discus specialist and prefer places with good right quartering winds . The wind at Hawaii this year wonderful
If you plan ahead, one city cost about the same as another.My airfare to Hawaii was $200 round trip from Oakland. I can’t drive to Eugene for that price.
The only nationals that was not up to par was the Disney meet. While the facilities were wonderful, the officiating in the discus was poor. Also, they wouldn’t let you bring in outside food or drink, so you had to pay Disney prices if you wanted a bottle of water. Otherwise, the others were first rate.
I am looking forward to throwing in Charlotte and Spokane. I have been working hard on my technique and conditioning and getting some excellent coaching from John Powell. I want to reverse the effects of aging and actually improve this year— a 20 foot PR would be nice.
So, hold the nationals in a place where I can throw far. If the wind is bad, bring in the fans!
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