Charter buses possible from Helsinki airport to indoor worlds site
Marilyn Mitchell, the longtime masters official from New York, writes: “The travel organization for the WMA Jyvaskala organizers has just told me that they will be organizing two charter buses (morning and evening) from the Helsinki Airport to Jyvaskala, if she has at least 30 people for each bus. They have not yet determined the dates nor the times of the bus from the airport. It depends upon when the athletes will be arriving. The cost would be 46 euros one-way, instead of the 52 euros which the normally-scheduled bus will charge. If you think you will be interested in the chartered bus, please let me know and send me your arrival date and arrival time and I will forward it to the organizers.” This is indoor worlds, of course. For info, write Marilyn at mmitchell46@hotmail.com
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Marilyn adds further info:
While the organizers have still not yet determined the dates nor the times of the bus from the airport…it depends upon when the athletes will be arriving…they have given some tentative times:
the morning bus will go at 9:00am or 10:00am
the afternoon bus will go at around 2:00pm
the evening bus will go at 7:00pm or 8:00pm.
Remember…those are only tentative times, dependent upon the arrival times of the majority of the athletes.
As of January 16, according to the WMA Jyvaskala website, only 15 USA athletes had registered for the meet with the deadline looming on February 12.
Not even half a busload!
All USA athletes who register for the WMA meet – via the website or paper entry – must have their entires verified by USATF. As of yesterday that has yet to happen. That there are 15 USA athletes names on the list is strange since names are not suppose to be on the list until the affiliate has verified them. That had not happened as of yesterday (according to the email I received from Sherry Quack when I asked her about it).
According the WMA LOC update on facebook – if you want to sign up for the bus you are supposed to notify the LOC travel agency – and pay them, and it will be possible to sign up for a bus to the airport at the conclusion of the meet as well.
Since most people do not troll the internet trying to figure all this out it would be nice if the WMA LOC put this information on their website with an email link to the travel people so it would be easy to sign up for the bus.
While Facebook may want the entire world to be on FB – that has not happened yet – perhaps it is a national requirement in Finland to be on facebook and friend the WMALOC – but I doubt that it is such a requirement in most of the world. This is a pretty stupid way to communicate such information.
Hi Mary,
Nolan Shaheed and Bill Collins are among the 15 USA registrants on the current WMA list.
I know both of them are frequent contributors to this blog, so maybe one of them can shed light on the registration/verification issue you raise.
I find the whole registration procedure cumbersome in comparison to previous years. We have always clicked a link to USATF/entries and submitted entries which they cleared and sent on to WMA. This year we fill out forms on the WMA site and then have to do what? The current status of entries ‘click on’ on the USATF page takes you to Sacramento entries on the link that works, it seems like the importance level of the masters world championships is of low priority, or is it just me not understanding the process?
Sounds like if it does not turn a profit that the travel agency wants its all going to be difficult. Back in the middle of last year I enquired to prices of hotels. None on the list of hotels were available except for the most expensive ones. All sold out was the response! I wonder who bought out all the rooms? Do you think any athletes were given any opportunities first by holding rooms for us? I dont think they gave us a thought. Have you seen the doller conversion for the cost per day? If your there for the duration or even 7 days its going to be well over 1000.00 just for a hotel. Never mind the other travel costs. Think the plane ticket is cheap? Yes, until you add the fees that can not be gotten around. Then its well over 1,000.00 as well. Think its going to be cheap to eat or do anything other than go to the meet. Think very carefully before you load your credit card. “Its the worlds”, I can hear them before its said. Is it worth the view? In truth and reality only the elite have a true world championships. Masters is for those who can afford to go. Furthermore, busting a few bubbes here, the winner is not the best like an elite athlete can truly claim on that day. They go through a lot to make to that point….and I dont mean just working out. Good luck team usa. unless I am asked, this blue coller worker stays home.
I totally respect all points of views and my two cents is: if you win a world championship event, then you are a world champion. You cannot control who shows up at the meet. All you can control is run or jump or throw as hard as you can and if you win, then you win … with no asterik.
I emailed Sherry Quack about the verification process and she responded that she does it – and as of two days ago she had not done it. She was surprised when I emailed her back that there are the names of 12-15 US masters already on the LOC list – and she had not verified them. That process will get done in time I am sure.
Re the hotels – the LOC probably locked up the hotel rooms until a certain date (which I do not know) – but that is what usually happens – they have a deal with certain hotels and if all the rooms are not booked by a specified date – they are released. The problem this time is that there are not a lot of hotels in Jyvaskyla – so perhaps they have a monopoly as of now. Finland is an expensive country – as those of us who went to Lahti discovered. . What is more favorable this time is that the Euro is less expensive vs the dollar right now. And for me – I am fortunate that I had enough FF miles available for my flight.
And – lastly I also emailed Sherry that the status of entry link on the USATF website went to the SAC site. She responded that she would tell the WMALOC that- I think that link is now dead. It surprised me too – wow – so many USA going – then I noticed that it was for SAC!
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