Back to Spain in 2018: Delegates pick Málaga for outdoor worlds
According to Spanish media, the southern city of Málaga has been chosen to host outdoor worlds in 2018. The city of 570,000 outpolled a bid from the Venice region of Italy in Thursday’s General Assembly in Lyon. This reflects the sentiment of our poll. Malaga won by a vote of 98 to 25, WMA source tells me. “It will be the second time that our country hosts the veteran athletics showpiece after the edition which was held in San Sebastian in 2005,” the report noted without sharing the exact vote count. “The next edition of the championship will be held in the Australian city of Perth from 26 October through November 6, 2016.” WMA’s website has yet to post the news, but I’ve written for details about this and other decisions. Thursday is rest day at worlds, but here’s the results site and perhaps a better compilation on the WMA site. Now can’t USA get its act together and bid for 2020?
Here’s what the potential main stadium looks like in Malaga, Spain, for 2018.
19 Responses
Um, Sacramento 2011?
The Europeans are great competitors and come out in droves to participate and watch. It should be fun.
Oops! Thanks, AK. I’ve deleted reference to Buffalo 1995. Of course, Sacto was 2011. Me there, too!
Buffalo, NY, was indeed the site in 1995. Six years earlier, Eugene, Oregon, hosted the meet. In 2003, the meet was in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, whose residents are citizens of the US, are they not? In 2011, Sacramento held the meet. If memory serves, Puerto Rico also held the meet in an earlier year.
Thus, there seems no particular reason to push for still another US meet. In terms of attendance, Lyon had 8,042 entrants, while Riccione (Italy) had 8,946 in 2007.
I tried to get all the attendance figures for the 1995-2015 time frame but was unable to get the number for Porto Alegre (Brazil), although I think the turnout there was modest. Forgetting that site, the only two locales in the time frame of interest that failed to draw even 4800 entrants were Puerto Rico 2003 and Sacramento 2011.
It looks like central and southern Europe constitute the places to be for worlds.
I’m also told that the General Assembly approved a new WMA Constitution, which will be posted this weekend. Hope it doesn’t have any sour surprises.
I should have said Western and Southern Europe, sorry.
PLT
Malaga:
Average high
June 82.6 F
July 86.9 F
Aug 87.4 F
Sept. 82.8 F
Oct. 75.4 F
In the warmest month, August, the temperature ranges from 26 to 35 °C (79 to 95 °F) during the day, above 20 °C (68 °F) at night and the average sea temperature is 26 °C (79 °F). October, anyone?
The preliminary dates for WMACS 2018 are 8 – 20 September. Still quite warm in Malaga. Maybe the beginning of October is better (for example, the European Masters Games in Nice, France, this year will be held between 1-11 October). And global warming is irreversible.
Anyway, congratulations for the Spanish colleagues!
Bonjour je suis une lanceuse de marteau Française et Malaga est une ville que je ne connais pas donc j’aimerai m’y rendre mais si les dates sont maintenues du 8 au 20 septembre cela sera problématique car hors période de vacances scolaires!! Impossible pour moi et pour beaucoup d’actifs je pense de se libérer à ces dates-là. Tous les championnats qui se sont déroulés en juillet-août sont ceux qui ont recueilli le plus de participants. Bien que les températures soient assez élevées, cela n’est pas impossible de les faire comme à Lyon 2015 où la chaleur était bien présente. Je ne sais quand sera prise la décision pour les dates définitives mais j’espère que les organisateurs réfléchiront bien pour que le maximum de personnes puissent avoir le plaisir de participer à ces championnats du monde. Bon courage aux Espagnols pour l’organisation.
An internet translation of #9 above:
Good morning I am a lanceuse of hammer Frenchwoman and Malaga grape is a city which I do not know therefore I shall like to go there but if dates are supported from 8 till 20 September it will be problematic because except period of scholastic vacation!! Impossible for me and for a lot of assets I think to free myself in these dates. All championships which took place in July-August are those who gathered most participants. Although temperatures are rather well brought up, it is not impossible to make them as in Lyons 2015 where warmth was well present. I do not know when will be made decision for final dates but I hope that the organizers will think well so that persons’ maximum can have the pleasure of participating in these World championships. Good courage to the Spanish for the organization.
I imagine that the LOC in Malaga opted for dates in September precisely to avoid the prime vacation period when accommodation would be much more expensive and hard to come by. Malaga is in the middle of the Costa del Sol, a major tourist (beach) destination for people from throughout Europe.
I do note, however, that for at least the second time in recent years, the meet falls during the period of major Jewish and Muslim holidays – a problem for some of us.
Hello, Malaga ans marbella are excellent places to go in october !
It is a very nice way to finish the summer season!
Temperature will be fine! Hôtels will be affordable.. So in many ways it’s a great vote!!
Thanks !
Let’s look at it this way. The way our sport is governed, there are six continental regions. The modern Olympics have been around for 119 years. Next year they will finally host the Olympics in their fifth region having limited all their previous Olympics, Winter and Summer to four regions. The IAAF Championships have existed since 1983. They have limited their championships, indoors and outdoors, to the same popular four regions. The WMA Championships have existed since 1975 and by 1997 had already visited five regions, we completed the sixth in 2013. Comparatively, WMA is not doing that bad of a job distributing their championships.
Oops. I gave the IAAF too much credit, they’ve only visited three regions. They have never gone further south than 25º N Latitude.
Very happy with Malaga as the winner, visited Costa del Sol/Malaga back in 1987, will be great to go back. Major tourist place for the Europeans!
Has the USATF designated a meet hotel for Team USA in Malaga 2018 yet? Posted today 10/27/2017. Anybody that knows please post, this is going to be a big meet just like Riccione and Lyon so booking early is vital.
We were on holiday in Costa del Sol/Malaga in September, a beautiful major tourist destination on the sea in southern Spain. The Malaga airport is big, many nonstop flights from all over Europe, including London (flights through Madrid are not that convenient with potential long layover but there is a nice high speed train taking about 2.5 hours that will get you there if one is into trains). The weather is hot but dry, no rain for months in the summer, similar to southern California. The area seems to be recovering nicely from the “great recession” which affected Spain in 2012, lots of new construction and building. The US dollar/Euro exchange rate is pretty reasonable today, we did not find Malaga expensive. All in all, we liked it enough to go back someday.
Very interested in competing in Malaga. I will be one and done in my events but still…
We (Beth and I) will be in Malaga next year, however, based on my experience in the 1990’s visiting Spain, I urge everyone going to exercise all due care. In my previous visit, my car was broken into*, the auto traffic was LA-freeway-rush-hour worthy, and only by lucky happenstance did I avoid being mugged by a gang of teen-agers. Further, every single person I talked to on the flight home, had similar tales of woe.
*never stop in a tourist attraction’s car park that has broken auto glass on the pavement; they’re breaking into cars there, probably with impunity.
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