Deadline is tonight for Charlotte masters nationals
In the news biz, they call this a drop-dead deadline. Anyone trying to enter the Aug. 3-6 USATF National Masters Outdoor T&F Championships after midnight Pacific time today is shit outta luck. Meanwhile, the deadline for entering the USATF National Masters Decathlon & Heptathlon Championships tomorrow and Sunday is, like, a half-hour before the first event. I wrote meet director Daunte Gouge about the last-minute entry policy, and he replied: “We doubt there will be any (late entries), but there are two or three young guys toying with the idea (35-39). And I figured the more the merrier.â€
Bully for you, Coach.
Of course, only 40 or so athletes are entered at the national masters deca/hep meet in Shoreline, Washington. (Five are female — with three in the hep and two (training partners Rita Hanscom and Nadine O’Connor) opting to try a women’s decathlon.
That compares with 1,400-plus expected at Charlotte.
So it’s apples and oranges? Not really.
Current technology should permit entry up until the day before the meet, and if printing of the meet program is an issue, why is that?
Anyway, we might see a major casualty.
Dennis Lewis has yet to enter the M45 high jump. Despite telling both Geezerjock magazine and his hometown paper that he was hankering to challenge Bruce McBarnette in the high jump at nationals, he is not in the house. And Dennis jumped 2.04 meters (6-8 1/4) this past winter for an M45 world indoor record. And was talking 7 for Charlotte.
These are the current entrants in the M45 high jump:
Theodore Robinson unattached 5-10 accepted
Raul Garcia Florida Athletic Club 4-8 accepted
Muraji Nakazawa Potomac Valley Track Club 4-8 accepted
Bruce McBarnette unattached 2.00 accepted
Jeff Brower Waterloo Track & Field Club 1.70 accepted
Gregory Coats Over The Hill TC NM info needed
Keith Cooper St. Louis Track Club NM accepted
So everyone but one stands to get a medal or a ribbon at Charlotte.
I’ve written several people in Michigan urging them to contact Dennis and remind him of the deadline. Stay tuned.
One Response
Certainly anybody wishing to enter a track meet should not expect to be part of the amenities. Anybody who is experienced and serious about running in a competitive meet would have registered at least far enough before their race to be properly warmed up (though there are some people, including a certain meet director, that run races without warming up–and for those of you who don’t know me, that is a self effacing remark).
Printing a program? Is that IT? The reason for a Three Week (graciously extended from a FOUR WEEK) advance registration deadline? You print the program for the advertisers. Your readership is the other competitors and the throngs of fans in the stands (again, that is sarcasm).
I take plenty of heat from other meet organizers who would love for me to go away. BUT that just mean I still have a long road to go to demonstrate or convince them. Assuming there is an available lane, the high tech tool to add somebody to a race is . . . a pencil (no, that is not a joke). Get their money and the details after the race if necessary.
Everything beyond that is caused by the unwillingness of meet officials to accommodate the needs of an athlete. Lets put this into business terms. The athletes are your customers. If you think this is an extra service, add a (reasonable) service charge. If you are not interested in providing the service to your customers, why are you in the business?
Personally, as a meet director, I think it takes much more work and is much more time consuming to produce a meet with advance registration because after doing all the leg work for the first round of pre-entrants, you have to re-do it when you have the inevitable no-shows. I prefer to do it once and when I have helpers (meet day). I have recently added advance registration to serve the athletes who want to use it and to try to appease my critics. Those same critics were up in arms when I tried to charge a penalty for my inconvenience for registering in advance.
As I have said elsewhere, if somebody were to actually show up at the start line, we are talking about inexperienced newbies who don’t know the ropes. Why the hell should we send them away? Bring them into the program and let them know what to do the next time. Back that off an hour and what if you get a crowd showing up to register at the last minute. Big deal. The speed of a track meet is limited by the capacity of the facilities (the size of the track). Even if they were to show up by the thousands (extreme example) they cannot expect to jump on the track any faster. And the more people you have paying you to run, the greater your budget to get the resources to make it happen. There are still lots of ways to accommodate if you are simply willing.
I was going to add this to the comments on the previous blog on this subject: It was mentioned that the second most attended National Championships was 1989 in San Diego. First the perennial question, why isn’t our program growing? But then: I ran in that meet and remember going through the (same day) entry procedure at the meet. I even got held up because I had to get hold of my association office to tell them my TAC number. So the second most attended National Championships allowed same day registration. What is wrong with our new, modern technology to make that not possible now?
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