Porto Alegre worlds under way after delayed opening ceremony
Dave Proffitt of UK posted the photo below to the WMA Facebook page, and WMA President Stan Perkins commented: “It was a good ceremony, but it started late unfortunately, and many of the athletes left before the entertainment that was fun, particularly the dancing. Such a pity.” Also a cautionary tale from a Canadian: “My first … event, the decathlon, was today, but they wouldn’t let me compete because I [inadvertently] left my number at the hotel. Oh, well, there will be other events and I will make sure to have my number with me.” Meanwhile, WMA has posted the latest in a series of corrections to the schedule. Also be sure to follow WMA on Twitter. I’m not in Porto Alegre and I have no clue where results are being posted, so if anyone can share link, it would be nice. Also please let us know how things are going. Weather reports are here, and Porto Alegre local time is here.
Photographer says stands were packed in Porto Alegre for start of ceremonies.
21 Responses
This link to results was posted on the WMA 2013 Facebook page:
http://wma2013portoalegre.blogspot.com.br/2013/10/resultados-das-competicoes-wma-ate-as.html
So, A guy flys from Canada all the way down to Brazil and can’t compete because he forgot his number in his hotel???
What if Decathlon had been his only event?
This isn’t the Olympics folks. Someone should have been able to verify SOMETHING that would have allowed him to compete with the minimum of interruption. Stuff happens.
Issues like this make me think very carefully about traveling far to compete. I hope there are no horror stories regarding the changing schedule, but I won’t be surprised if there are.
Ummm. Arrived in P.A. but wth no information about time date or place of open ceremony. So missed that. Hope future info is more timely and that the paint dries on the track before the starting gun goes off.
Wow, over three hundred people contesting the 8k Cross-Country runs.
Every world meet I competed in requires U to show your number at check-in. Rookie mistake. Gotta read the athletes manual carefully.
The decathlons started yesterday as well as the cross country races. Does anyone know how to acquire results from the decs?
Guy forgets his number and we blame the organizer…interesting…
Both days of the decathlon and heptathlon have been completed. I can’t find the results. Does anyone have the location for the results?
@ Milan
Don’t be a jerk. The guy obviously made a mistake. People are human. It might be nice if the meet officials could work with the guy.
It’s not like he was trying to perform in an event he didn’t sign up and pay for. It’s not like he was trying to rig an election or something.
Heck, he could have brought the number the next day. Did they let him compete in the second day? Oh, that’s right, the RULES say you have to start in every event to continue.
To travel so far and spend so much money and have some bureaucrat say, “Sorry, those are the rules” is pretty weak in my book. Maybe you wouldn’t have minded if it happened to you.
Glad I decided not to attend. 2013 and they can’t even update a web page with results. Must be a mess. Guess we wait for the telegrams to come in.
If you are a M50-54 or M55-59 decathlete and decided not to come, you made one of the best decisions of your life. The M55-59 guys waited almost 6 hrs. on Wednesday to high jump and had to jump in the dark with poor lighting conditions. Yesterday was worse, waited over 8 hrs. to pole vault, started at 9pm with car headlights pointed toward the pit.
I am the Canadian who was refused permission to compete in the decathlon because I didn’t have my number with me. What happened was, we took a taxi to the Sogipa facility where the decathlon was to take place and I arrived 2 hours before the start time. I checked in and realized I’d left my number at our hotel.
I related this to the ‘officials’ who we’re checking us in, who were a group of very young adults who could barely (to put it mildly) speak English. My very limited Portuguese was probably as good as their very limited English. They conferred and related to me I could compete, even though I didn’t bring my number.
After I waited around for over half an hour, they brought me to another ‘official’, some English-challenged 19-year-old kid who informed me something like: ‘Rule are rules, you don’t have a number, you can’t compete’. By this time, there wasn’t enough time to go back to the hotel, get the number and return by the mandatory (to them) one hour before start of event.
I compete in track in school, where the stakes were much higher than in Masters meets and problems like this we’re worked out without barring the athlete from competing. I also think that if this meet we’re taking place in Europe or North America, this probably wouldn’t have happened. Just saying.
And, Milan, I know you’re a product of a closed society, but maybe try to keep a more open mind.
-Grant L (the forgetful Canadian)
Full results for yesterday:
http://www.3cartedesign.com.br/images/upload/ctiburski/wma/Results-Resultados-20131018.pdf
Check out the heptathlon totals (all the way at the bottom). I don’t think anyone scored more than 60% of their seed mark. The decathlon went much better.
results are upon the LOC website but only for the 16th – the dec, the hep and the team results from x-c. Last time I checked it is the 18th today – and nothing posted for the 17th – which is a competition day. The individual results for the x-c are posted on a blog – but not on the official website.
I think they must be using paper and pencil to record results and then typing them into the computer – just kidding but really – if this is symbolic of how things are going – pretty sad.
Michael:
Sorry to hear about the ludacris conditions you had to endure in the M55 Decathlon. I had something “pop” in my foot coming off the seventh hurdle in the shuttle hurdles in Olathe and couldn’t train, so I decided not to go to Brazil. It appears I was spared the agony of having to deal with a poorly run event. I hope your individual events are better organized. Congratulations on putting up some fine marks and getting the bronze. I believe the gold would have been yours with any kind of a decent Pole Vault, (eight hours to vault! What on earth were they doing to delay things so long?).
Grant my man, I feel sorry for you, that sucks big time. Now, you can add a few stanzas to your ‘Decathlon Blues’.
As a follow-upto my previous message, I competed today in one event at the CETE stadium in Porto Alegre, which is the main stadium for the Games. It was better organized than the decathlon debacle, which was at SOGIPA, an auxiliary stadium. Here at CETE, they had one primary official/overseer for each event that was fluent in English and knew about track and field. Again, things went better at CETE. However, still not up to world standards. For example at the long jump (the event I did)there was no tape provided showing the distance to the takeoff board (heck, they even do that at local meets where I come from) and no sign showing the distance made by the previous jumper. Despite all this, I must commend the Brazilians, they are a friendly and warm people and really try to help. They just need better planning and orginization, thatВґВґs all. And, yeah Stefan, now I REALLY got the Decathlon Blues! рџ™‚
Hey Noel, while I will never say an injury is a good thing, that one saved you much grief and a few thousand. We were told that another set of standards could not be located, thus one high jump pit. The reason for one vault pit, it was mentioned earlier, the box was too shallow. I’m actually on my way home, the NH pretty much took the wind out of my sails and I decided to pack it in.
PS – I will whole heartedly echo Grants remark about the Brazilian people, their kindness will be remembered as the highlight of my trip.
Grant, on second thought they probably should have let you compete if there was enough time to deal with it and you had some form of identification.
Already mentioned – in which blog? that our Heptathlon went ever so smoothly, YES, we waited for over 3 hrs for the HJ pit to be clear, all the other age groups already jumped. There just was not another pit. Who is to blame, NOT the officials or volunteers. They stayed friendly and apologized
as long as we waited.
Once we were done, we took pictures, it lasted as long as we were jumping…
So, the stories from the Decathlon were much more disturbing.
Not being able to compete – because of a missing number, is too harsh, there should have been some
give!
Oh, and the uniform issue; we had to buy a certain
type – and we did! most of us. We saw a spiderman top – and nothing happened.
We also saw a few T-Shirts in competition, and nobody knew where the athlete was from. We asked!!
The best answer I got from one of the top officials A WMA delegate!!,
we should not care!!! these athletes are just happy
to be there, they might never have the chance again.
YES, I agree. We were told that we needed a certain top, we could afford a uniform, we are wearing it, and all is well!
Rain today – nice weather tomorrow? there is still so much excitement around here, people talking about the relays.
Signing out.
Leave a Reply