Marathon halved at outdoor worlds in Perth General Assembly votes

Stan Perkins is Aussie prez of WMA.

Stan Perkins, president of World Masters Athletics.

Race walkers, rejoice. A 5K outdoor walk is being added to WMA world indoor meets after 2017. But road runners may have mixed feelings. They’re losing a marathon and gaining a half-marathon at outdoor worlds. Those were among decisions made in late October when General Assembly delegates met in Perth. Minutes of that meeting haven’t been posted yet, but WMA President Stan Perkins graciously shared results of various motions. See his list here. Also tweaked are the cross country races at outdoor worlds. Men and women over 70 will run the 6K instead of the 8K. (That’s a cut from 5 miles to 3.7 miles.)

Here’s the list of motions carried at Perth GA:

MOTION:
New event from 2019. A 3KM Outdoor Race Walk Event is included in Indoor Championships following from the 2017 Indoor Championship. This is NOT a team event.
MOTION AMENDED TO READ ‘A 5KM OUTDOOR ROAD WALK EVENT…….
AMENDED MOTION CARRIED

MOTION:
That the MARATHON event be removed from the WMA Stadia Championships programme, effective from 1 January 2017. MOTION CARRIED

MOTION:
That the HALF MARATHON event be included in future WMA Stadia Championships, effective from 1 January 2017. MOTION CARRIED

MOTION:
That the HALF MARATHON EVENT be removed from the WMA Indoors Championships, effective 1 January 2018.
MOTION AMENDED TO READ – That the HALF MARATHON event be removed as a required event from the WMA Indoors Championships, effective 1 January 2018
AMENDED MOTION CARRIED

MOTION:
That a 10KM ROAD RACE be included in future WMA INDOORS Championships in all age groups, commencing 1 January 2018. MOTION CARRIED

MOTION:
That the 10,000 metres track race be deleted from the WMA Stadia Championships commencing on 1 January 2017.
MOTION:
The WMA introduce a 10KM ROAD RACE into the WMA STADIA CHAMPIONSHIPS, commencing from 1 January 2017.
MOTION AMENDED BY JOINING THE TWO MOTIONS INTO ONE BY ADDING THE WORD ‘AND’
After considerable debate the AMENDED MOTION WAS CARRIED (68/38)

MOTION:
That the CROSS COUNTRY RACE for men and women age groups 70 plus be reduced from 8KM to 6KM, effective from 1 January 2018. MOTION CARRIED

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November 21, 2016

6 Responses

  1. Mary Harada - November 21, 2016

    Personally I am pleased that the X-C for age groups 70+ is being reduced from 8k to 6k. Originally the x-c was a 10k, then reduced to 8k, now the reduction for older folks is welcome news to me.

  2. Ed Whitlock - November 23, 2016

    As An irregular attendee at the WMA meets maybe I should have shown more support for the events being axed. I really think however that athlete participation is not the issue but perceived inconvenience to organizers. There are other events that attract less participation.
    Both the 10000m and marathon are iconic Olympic events, think Emil Zatopek, Lasse Viren, Frank Shorter or Mo Farah and many others much more well known to the track and field community than those for any other events apart from the 100m.
    Its part of a general lack of respect for distance running. To the best of my knowledge the only time that the 10000m has been run on the main stadium at the WAVA/WMA championship was in 1975 when there was only one track in use. Why are heats for events up to 800m run on the main track while finals for 5000 and 10000 are always consigned to a secondary track? The only road running event the WMA keeps records for is the marathon. Now they are substituting events for which they don’t even keep records. The WMA record application form is not appropriate for the marathon. etc
    Ed

  3. Bill Pontius - November 23, 2016

    Well, the great Ed Whitlock said it much better than I could. The 10K should be on the track not the roads for a world champs. Imagine the Olympics ditching the 10K track race. IMO, this is an extremely bad decision for track and for master’s track. (And I am not a distance runner.)

  4. Mary Harada - November 25, 2016

    I agree with Ed, ditching the marathon and the 10k on the track certainly shows the disrespect that WMA has for distance events. I suppose one might say that cutting back the x-c for older athletes from 8k to 6k shows the same thing but I think not. I see it more as understanding that many of the x-c competitors are also running the 5k and even 10k races. In Perth the women x-c/5k competitors had a single day of rest between the x-c and 5k. For older athletes this is not sufficient. I dropped out of the 5k after about 1500m because of cramping and fatigue so that I would not injure myself and could be able to run the 800 and 1500 some days later. And always anything over 1500m is relegated to a secondary track – often at some distance from the main track both for runners and race walkers. We are the step children of the meet. Switching the 10k track race for a 10k road race sounds to me like an effort to attract more local runners to register for the meet.

  5. Ty Brown - November 25, 2016

    I am a hurdler/sprinter and I think the 10,000 meters should be run on the track and not the road. Distance runners train as hard as anyone else and their events should also be show cased.

  6. Ken Stone - November 25, 2016

    How did USA delegates vote on the 10K issue at Perth? I have no clue.

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