Hammer throwers deemed Kryptonite in Empire State
Another masters event bites the dust. A couple years ago, the California State Games dropped “adult track.” This season the San Diego Senior Olympics has canceled the track meet. The latest outrage: The Empire State Games in New York have banished hammer throwers to a distant venue — and dropped the masters hammer altogether — only days before the event. Our M50 friend Peter Van Aken, gold medal winner in the hammer two years ago at the ESG, writes: “On Tuesday, July 24, I received a phone call from Susan Maxwell, assistant to the Masters Division director, saying that the masters hammer throw event had been canceled from the 2007 edition of the Empire State Games, an event listed in the program as taking place Saturday, July 28.”
Peter continued:
No other event in the masters program was cancelled, just hammer throw. The overall Games begin with an Opening Ceremony and parade of athletes and speeches and torch lighting Wednesday, July 25th. Open division and Scholastic division hammer throwers, I found out, are competing at a separate site 40 miles away from the rest of the track and field competitors, away from spectators and other athletes, so they are being inconvenienced, but at least they are assured of competition that they earned by qualifying in regional preliminary meets.
In NYS Masters athletes in all sports pay an entry fee, receive no free taxpayer supported sweatsuit like the Open/Scholastic athletes do, aren’t offered state-supplied free transportation to the site of the finals and free housing for the duration of the Games, and again, our NYS taxes are being used to fund the rental of this separate and “exclusive” hammer facility for the open and scholastic athletes.
But I, my fellow masters hammer throw competitors from age 30-80 having paid our fee, having trained and geared up for competition — 5 days from the announced date the masters hammer throw athletes are not allowed to particpate.
The Empire State Games played a role in one of our sport’s greatest moments. Almost exactly 10 years ago, the event hosted the first 7-foot by an M40 jumper — Glen Conley. It still grates on me that his record hasn’t been ratified.
Now this.
If the Empire State Games can pull this stunt on masters hammer throwers, will other adult age-groupers be far behind? Sounds like a protest is in order.
Any ideas?
4 Responses
The Empire State Games provide the only state-wide competition here in NY that attracts a relatively large field. However, they are run very casually. For running events, there’s no time schedule provided that allows for proper warm up, for instance. Finals are moved to prelim times, for example, with the goal of getting the meet done in the least time possible. I applaud our state for continuing the meet and the officials–same crew each year–who put it on.
However, masters track is a poor relation at the Empire Games. Last year when the meet was in my hometown–Rochester–there wasn’t a host site for the masters meet at all in the initial plans until Bill Quinlisk, assistant coach at RIT who organizes summer meets here, pointed it out to the facilities committee and suggested Roberts Wesleyan’s excellent mondo track.
I doubt the power of protest in this case, though if I were a hammer thrower, I’d express my great dismay to the organizers. The “afterthought” nature of the meet, relative to the open and scholastic divisions, is the reason that if the ESG are not nearby, I prefer, if feasible, to drive to the very well run Canadian nationals that weekend.
I also received a cancellation call on the Monday before the Empire State Games event on Saturday. I heard from some Westchester High School coaches at a local meet last night that the Westchester All County meet was hosted at Byram Hills this year and the hammer throw was offered-so what has changed for the EMS?
It is personally very upsetting that we hammer/ weight throwers are treated with such disrespect. The same thing happened at the USAT&F Metropolitan outdoor championships and we were left out of the schedule for the indoor championships (Stated as TBA and never was).
The outdoor championships were deemed unsafe due to the cage being a discus cage. The weight being thrown fast enough to penetrating the netting? I would like to see that throw. Now I, today, 3 days before the meet, get the call that the event is cancelled.
The irony to me is I returned to this sport last year after a 25+ year absence because of the Empire State Games. Organizers who have worked on this for months could not have made sure that adequate facilities were available or created (as was done two years ago).
It is very disappointing that a state that has had hammer as a competitive event in high schools across the state for decades (that is where I did hammer) does not give us the respect to schedule these events with care to ensure proper facilities or logic.
There were 36 entries in the hammer; 37 in the 5,000; 15 people in the 10,000; 8 people in the 20K race walk; 12 in the steeplechase; 14 in sprint hurdles; 13 in long hurdles; 44 in long jump; 30 in triple jump; 37 in high jump; 18 in pole vault. Hammer is certainly a popular enough event to warrant some respect.
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