Masters exhibition at Des Moines a disappointment, like the meet
So three men ran the masters exhibition 100 yesterday at USA open nationals in Des Moines. Three were DNS — including Lyndon Herzberg, of course. (But he had an excuse: He also was entered in the same race the same day at the Hayward Masters Classic in Eugene, where he was a no-show as well. Sigh.) Video of the event (see below) shows Robert Thomas winning a close race to nice applause. Thanks for stepping up, Robert! (He’s the vice chairman of USATF Masters T&F Committee — akin to USATF Prez Stephanie Hightower taking an open lane in the 100 hurdles.) More worrisome were ESPN and NBC telecasts of the meet, which showed vast stretches of empty bleachers, especially on the backstretch. And ESPN cut away from the end of Friday’s meet to show a no-hitter in progress. Not good. Many elites also were AWOL. Very bad.
And yet USATF CEO Doug Logan, interviewed on ESPN, pretended that things are improving in Trackandfield Land. (And he even suggested a track and field reality show was being contemplated. Oy vey.)
Still, this was easily the worst masters exhibition event in the program’s 11-year history.
Did it have to be such an embarrassment?
The women’s 100 was scratched for lack of entrants. Had the men’s race come down to two, it might have been spiked as well.
So what’s the solution?
Easier qualifying standards? More creative leadership and event-picking? Financial inducements?
The Masters T&F Invitational Program — meant to showcase great athletes from our niche — might blame the economy, the weather, the meet’s lack of importance this year (with no World Championships or Olympic team to pick). I suspect all played a part in the dismal showing.
But we gotta do better than this.
Results from the masters men’s 100 at Des Moines:
Men 100 Meter Dash Masters
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Name Year Team Finals Wind
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Finals
1 Robert Thomas Southwest Sp 11.82 -3.6
2 Eric Merriweather Sprint Athletics 11.98 -3.6
3 Ron Potocnik Southwest Sp 11.99 -3.6
— Reggie Pendland Southwest Sp DNS -3.6
— Lonnie Hooker unattached DNS -3.6
— Lyndon Herzberg unattached DNS -3.6
12 Responses
NOTE TO RACE DIRECTORS: When you have 3 empty middle lanes, why not run the 3 remaining athletes together in 4-5-6? I feel sorry for the guy in Lane 2…
PT- I owe you a buck (no surprise)…will pay you in Sacto!
Thank you, Mellow Johnny, I will spend the $1 wisely. I figured it was a good bet (that Mr. Herzberg would not run).
I really do not believe the standards for the 100 meters were the issue. It seems to be a combination of an off-year; location; economy; and the event chosen this year for the location. It may sound stereotypical but the sprints should be the event when the locations are loaded with top sprinters, for example(west coast, southeast) distance runners(midwest, northwest) middle distance (northeast) and so on. Before everyone goes crazy, it is just an example.
I can almost guarantee this would not have happened if Masters throwers were invited, as was the case at the Albuquerque 2010 USA Indoor Nationals and was a success. It’s almost funny that a fraudulent athlete was able to enter in an exibition race at this years outdoor Nationals and was actually on the program to run. Can you imagine this happening in any other sport? That’s why the public does not take T&F seriously except for once every 4 years. They don’t care, and neither does our organizing body if you really think about it. I’m going to see if I can sign with and play in a pre-season game for the Denver Broncos this summer…Wish me luck!
Hats off to Ron, Robert and Eric for showing up and running well against a strong headwind! Ken, I also videotaped the race and posted it on Facebook. Not as good as Runnerspace though since I was at 50m line and in row 2. Cheers!
Cutting away from the men’s 5K with 2 minutes left was awful. Never even showed the 100.
Let’s see…there have been 3 perfect games this year (yes, we all know there have been 3) and another no-hitter so the possibility of another one was not news….weak stuff, ESPN.
Jimson,
This inflexibility is caused by the Hy-Tek computer system again. As I outlined at http://masterstrack.com/2009/05/277/ we have made our meet management dependent on this one computer program that repeatedly demonstrates its inability to adjust to the appropriate needs of conducting a track meet. At a properly conducted track meet we would make that kind of adjustment, putting the runners in the center of the track. But under Hy-Tek, the Clerk of the Course is instructed not to make lane changes. It would take the Hy-Tek operator several stressful, complicated minutes to make those changes in the system. The same inflexibility is at the heart of our outrageously early registration deadlines. Hy-Tek is so complicated to change that our knowledgeable meet managers fear the amount of time it takes to fix the mountain of problems Hy-Tek will spit out in formatting particularly a Masters meet. Our complicated age groups fry its brain. Very few people are competent at making Hy-Tek lay out our age divisions, most others have to manually force the program to do what is necessary to make a masters meet run . . . or the alternative, many also just give up and run the meet wrong because they can’t make the age divisions and then the seeding line up. Our convenience, or lack thereof, is at the mercy of this one, commonly used program. Because of its commonality, we have made our meets beholden to its lack of flexibility. Start entering the 2011 World Championships, the entry deadline will probably be about February.
I no nothing of running event seeding , Hy-Tek systems, etc. so what I may suggest may be ridiculous and if so, please forgive my ignorance on the issue. As Mr. Hecker stated above, ” Very few people are competent at making Hy-Tek lay out our age divisions…” maybe at future meets instead of making the heats in age group format, could it just use the inputed, verified entry times and group the runners based on that, instead of age, so that the best times are running together and so forth into finals, then sort out the age groups at the end, when the meet is over? It still wouldn’t help in lane changes, but at least you would bypass the age groups problem that Hy-Tek has so much difficulty with. You couldn’t use it in throwing events due to the weight changes in implements different age groups, but could that work in running events?
Congrats Ron, Robert, Eric…hope it was great experience. Food for thought…DON’T enter if you DON’T have any intention of running. It potentially effects more then just yourself. Not only did it reflect poorly on the “master’s” division for the no-show’s…if I wasn’t injured I MIGHT have lost out on the oppurtunity to compete in front of my “homecrowd” @ a USA Championship, just as someone else may have been “bumped” from the field. Think of more then just yourself. IF there is a legitmate reason for the no-show I’m sure Mark may have had an alternate list to try. He can only go by the info he receives (thanks for your efforts Mark).
Milton,
I don’t think I would get any argument from most track aficionados as to what should be done (though there will be some who argue about how the rules should read). The problem is how to get the computer to display that at the touch of a button . . . or more importantly, to adjust appropriately when there are last minute changes. The reality of our sport is that change always happens. I have literally seen a competitor break his foot warming up. Anything could happen before we go to the start line. For example: at the start line of a 400, as a starter, I would much rather move the lonely competitor in lane 8 next to the the other two other competitors in lane 2-3. Not only does it make the race more visually attractive and competitive when the athletes are next to each other, but it makes it much easier to see all three athletes start. When the meet is not governed by the computer, we casually make that change. Its normal. At a big meet the Clerk of the Course is the person charged with making those kinds of decisions to deal with a developing situation. Because of Hy-Tek, their hands are tied. My contention is when Hy-Tek is operating the meet, it should also be able to respond. But it can’t. When I have been at Masters meets, in that kind of situation, I’ve seemed like the bad guy for asking the Hy-Tek operator go through that much work just to get all the people in one age group to run in the same race. (and I’m not even talking about situations when we let an elite athlete run outside of their age group to find competition) At the National Championship level, we just can’t have somebody get a medal without facing their proper competitors. And ultimately, all the time, all that hard work on the part of the Hy-Tek operator works against the best wishes of the athletes and the smooth operation of the meet. That’s why I’m vocal about the problem.
Well said, and I totally understand.
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