masterstrack.com

I was hoping Ken Stone's blog item on Masters-Athlete.com would have reached the pages of this forum by now so that we could thrash out why the US does not hold more WMA indoor events.

In his article, http://www.masters-athlete.com/public/478.cfm, Ken touted a conspiracy theory that the indoor World Champs have always been held in Europe because the majority of the people selecting the venue are Europeans. Votes per country appear to be based upon the number of athletes each country enters at previous championships. Since the first champs were in Europe, more Europeans entered; giving them more votes for the following venue selection, and so on. A vicious circle stacked in favour of the Europeans.

My own federation in the UK raised a proposal last year, at the WMA General Assembly in Riccione, to reduce the number of World indoor championships to one every four years. The reason given was that “there are too many championships and in particular that they are generally in Europe and with costs getting too high for athletes to attend these and other championships, thus making entries less and more difficult to get organisers for championships.” Fortunately the motion did not get heard because the world body in masters athletics did not book the meeting room for long enough to hear all the items on the meeting agenda!

Clearly there is an opportunity here for the US to step in and redress the balance. We Europeans would love to cross the pond to compete, especially with the value of the dollar as it is.

I do hope you have indoor facilities to rival Linz and Clermont Ferrand. If so, bring it on.

Thanks for noticing my blog at Masters Athlete, Pat!

I've been meaning to promote it, but have been too busy salivating over the latest masters records. I'll mention my other blog soon.

For the record: My Masters Athlete blog appears Tuesdays. I'm part of a rotation, which includes some other geezerjocks who can spell.

Sneak preview of my next MA blog: It includes my interview with Alisa Harvey, who broke her own W40 indoor record for 800 meters over the weekend and aims to qualify for the Olympic Trials this summer.

It'll be posted here:
http://www.masters-athlete.com/public/478.cfm

The WMA championship venues, both indoor and outdoor, are selected at the association's general assembly held in conjunction with each outdoor championships. All the member countries get to vote. In Riccione there were about 100 votes counted. It's true some of the biggest countries get 2 or even 3 votes, but that's not a significant determinant of the final result.

I'm usually a voter, and I can attest that I usually vote on the basis of a venue's weather and facilities, the visa situation for Hong Kong athletes and cost of travel and living.

In Riccione, I voted against Sacarmento for visa reasons, but Sacramento nevertheless won, probably for facilities and cost reasons. So the system isn't stacked against the US.

The WMA's new president, Monty Hacker, has expressed concern over the paucity of bidders for these meets. A bidding city stands to gain a lot of hotel and restaurant business, but the members of the actual organizing committee don't, perhaps, get enough reward for all their trouble.

Quick Silver
Hong Kong