Deadline for Daegu worlds is Jan. 23; Rex Harvey urging entry
Selling the sizzle: Daegu arena looks like it flies.
Rex continues:
There is a wide variety of accommodation available all the way from as little as $16 per day up to well over $200 per day. If you are on a tight budget, Guest Houses (hostels) are available with the usual amenities like communal bathrooms, etc.
No matter where you stay, you should locate close to one of the three main subway lines as they all lead to near the stadiums.
The official Daegu website accommodation tab has a wide variety of options. However they do require full payment at the time of booking. But, if you have to cancel, you can get 30 to 90% of your money back depending upon when you cancel. If you happen to get hurt at the USATF Masters Indoor Championship in Albuquerque and have to cancel, you will get only 50% of your accommodation money back (and of course, none of your entry fee back). After the 12th of March, you get nothing back.
In an effort to secure a US Team hotel, Robert Thomas, in his new organizational role on the MTF Games Committee, has been actively negotiating with the Daegu Accommodation Agency and has managed to get considerable relief on cancelation fees, but it requires a monetary commitment to a certain number of rooms which is very hard to guarantee at this time as there is no budget and we have little idea of how many Americans will be attending and wanting to stay at a team hotel (or team hotels).
So there will be no official US Team hotel this time (you’ll be happy to know that work is already underway for a Team Hotel in Malaga, Spain for 2018 WMA World Outdoor Championships).
If you have been watching for a while, you may have noticed that the official hotel prices are about double of normal. This may seem like a rip-off, but in actuality the official accommodation agency is protecting you. Last year they had an international event in Daegu and the hotels raised their prices fourfold and so, this time, the agency booked all of the major hotels and made an agreement to keep the prices down albeit with the price doubled and the up-front payment requirement.
That’s straight-talking, Rex.
Anything else you need to know? Anything you’ve learned on your own?
7 Responses
I’m a little confused here, but perhaps someone in M60 who often comments on this site can help me. That would be David Ortman, who took second in the 60 last March in Albuquerque behind the dazzling Damien Leake (7.88 for gold, while David ran 8.18).
Albuquerque had 25 entrants in the M60 60 dash, of whom 19 actually competed. My latest look at the WMA Daegu website for the M60 60 dash shows 5 men from Korea (1 of whom has already been rejected) and 6 men from outside that country.
With a deadline of January 24 (inside Korea) or January 23 (outside), it’s certainly possible that Daegu will exceed our 2016 ABQ total of 25 in the M60 60, might even get 30, although that looks challenging right now.
David (or others): Looks like the trials in the 60 for the M60 group in Daegu will be on the 20th of March. Do you know why a decision was made many months (or years) ago to shut down the entries on the 23rd/24th of January? Wouldn’t 1 month before the meet rather than almost 2 months be sufficient to process these entries? I do not know the answer.
The answer is:
1. Almost 2 months deadline to 23/24 January is OK, for all.
2. That WMA intends to hold that deadline is excellent.
Pete, the early registration deadline might actually assist in creating a more accurate schedule than Perth had…which might be helpful to people in making their travel plans.
At Perth, there were a number of prelims that were cancelled at the last minute due to low numbers. People traveled out to the stadium only to be told that their prelim had been cancelled and to return the day of the final.
With the early registration deadline for Daegu, maybe some prelims can be cancelled before people make their travel plans and waste money on extra nights of hotel stays.
Rob—I think the extra-early entry deadline might actually contribute to the problem you describe. If only a handful of people enter an event, prelims won’t even be scheduled. The cancellation of a prelim happens when people enter but fail to show up on race day; in many instances the no-show is the result of an injury that occurred after the entry deadline. So the earlier the entry deadline, the greater the chance that people who entered will suffer an injury or other circumstance that will result in a no-show. An entry deadline very close to race day would make such dropouts less likely and would allow everyone to be more confident that scheduled prelims will actually be necessary. But the deadline can’t be too close to race day, because as you point out, travel plans have to be made in advance. I guess meet management has to strike a balance, and obviously things don’t always work perfectly for everyone.
I agree with Ed that the early date will be more of a problem than not. I have business travel to Asia several times a year, and if I can swing a trip in late March, I may try to compete. But I won’t know this until mid February, so I would have to register now even though I have a 50/50 chance of being able to attend.
Ed and Scott…I get your point. And, as Ed points out, a balance has to be struck.
For those going to Daegu, don’t make the same mistake I did in trying to book accommodations. I went on Expedia just to compare hotel prices (when I travel I usually book directly with a hotel after comparing prices on Expedia) and it appeared that everything was sold out for the dates of the competition.
That seemed strange so I went on the accommodations section of the meet web site and there was a lot of availability.
It seems that the LOC has reserved all the hotel rooms in Daegu so that athletes must book through their web site. Don’t know what I think about that…but just putting that fact out there so people don’t freak out if they try to book unsuccessfully through Expedia, Orbitz, etc. At this point, hotels are NOT sold out.
You HAVE to book accommodations through the meet web site.
I suppose one can take a chance and not book a hotel until a week or so before the meet. At some point the LOC should release the unsold rooms I would think. I have seem this in the past for WMA meets where the location is small enough that there are limited facilities and the LOC can lock up the rooms and raise the prices sky high. I am not recommending this – unless you want to travel with a sleeping bag and tent!
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