Deadline looms for entering Charlotte masters nationals
Every year, without fail, people show up at masters nationals and say, “How do I enter?” And every year, meet officials roll their eyes and say, “Sorry, but the deadline was three weeks ago.” Often these late-bloomers are locals who read about the meet in the hometown papers, not realizing that deadlines have been promulgated and publicized for months. (Gerry Lindgren was an example in 2005.) So I’m hoping that the word has gotten out in North Carolina by now.
In any case, meet director Gordon Edwards has extended the basic-cost deadline for entering. He writes: “We have waived the $50 late entry fee for entries after July 7. USATF sent out an email to that effect. However, the entry must be RECEIVED by July 14, not postmarked by the 14th to be accepted.”
Of course, folks can also go online to enter.
Even with the late-entry waiver (often a sign of a meet worried about numbers), the Charlotte nationals should be one of the biggest in history — in terms of entrants.
Meet announcer Pete Taylor, who enjoys predicting turnouts at nationals, sent me this note:
“With this message I am publicly congratulating Dr. Gordon Edwards, the meet director for Charlotte. As of now (6:00 pm Eastern Daylight Time on July 7) we have 176 entrants in the 400 dash; entries are absolutely booming.
“This means we are going into new territory, as the presumed all-time record for actual competitors in the 400 dash would be 171 (Eugene 2000). Three notes here: (i) I choose Eugene 2000 because it was the only meet in our history to break 1450 entrants, and thus I assume it had the highest total for 400 dash (don’t know of any meets other than San Diego 1989 that even broke 1300). (ii) Of course, I am counting entrants rather than actual number going to the line, but Charlotte has lots more entrants coming in and should easily break 200 entrants in the 400. (iii) I’m too busy to count more than one event, and thus I chose the 400.
“Note that we have 16 women in W40 200; it will be hard even to make the final. When has that happened before, where you had to be excellent just to make the final? Many other events are packed, and the entries just keep on coming. Let’s have a party. With the leadership of Dr. Edwards we will reach new highs (for total entries) in many events.”
Me again:
Meanwhile, another deadline looms. Athletes interested in competing in the USATF Western Regional Masters Championships on July 22-23 in Long Beach have until Monday to enter without incurring a $20 late fee. The drop-dead deadline is July 17. Information is all here.
3 Responses
We made our deadline for the decathlon a week before the meet, and we will still take entries after that, it is just $15 more. We’ll even take day of meet entries!
As of Saturday July 8, no 40-44 men have entered the pole vault, and no 40-44 women have entered the 10,000m.
Hello Jeffrey Stone! See you in the suite Saturday August 5.
Meet directors continue to look at the positives–the supposed huge numbers of entrants who DO manage to make the entry requirements. But folks, even our BEST attended meet is only a couple thousand people out of a country of almost 300 MILLION. We have so many people who are NOT participating in our sport, that there is always room to grow. Each new person who does get interested is a small victory.
You say “So what if a few people get turned away?” Those are the newbies we have been trying to reach. And in addition to not letting them participate, you’ve just pissed them off, so they won’t be inclined to pursue going to others. The people who do succeed in following your unnecessary restrictions are ALL the people who are already connected and already involved in out sport. You are not advancing the participation of our sport, just continuing it.
Each time you put on a meet, each time you go to a new venue and try different publicity efforts, you will find new people to sample the program. By moving the Association Championships around, I get contacted by several dozen newbies each year. Some of them stick. We can always use more.
I repeat my assertion–there is no reason for closing registrations in advance. I go so far as to say not four weeks, not even four hours. If they can make it to the start line and there is an open lane–let them run.
I’ve been fighting this battle for the better part of two decades. The excuse that is given is “data entry.” Lets do the math. Four weeks to process 2000 entries? And at $45 per entrant and a minimum of $10 per event, you can afford to hire secretarial help. That isn’t even taking into account that, if the USATF on-line system works as it should, all of that data is handed to you on a silver platter. Enter it into HiTech and let it process it. The only parts of the job that are labor intensive are to load the mailed in, paper entries and to look for the mistakes. This process gets easier every year.
Putting on the National Championships is easier, you have enough competitors. You don’t need to try to create an interesting race out of empty lanes. Its an automated process–the way the software is designed to work. And you have the resources, volunteers, budget. But by closing entries so far in advance, you create more trouble for yourself–you have to pull out all the people that don’t show up. That’s no big deal, you already have their money.
Maybe it is because I am outspoken on this, but I hear from people who don’t like registering this far advance all the time–people who begrudgingly follow the restrictions because they want to participate. You should learn, its not in the meet director’s job description to try to offend our participants.
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