Sacramento wins 2011 world masters championships
By a vote of 69-39, delegates at the Riccione General Assembly of World Masters Athletics today awarded Sacramento the 19th World Masters Athletics Championships. WMA President Cesare Beccalli of Italy had been promoting a rival bid from Porto Alegre, but the Brazilian city was evidently hurt by its plans for a January meet. In Sacramento, the biennial meet will take place July 7-17 (give or take a day or two) in 2011 — making it the first U.S.-hosted world masters meet since 1995 Buffalo. Bob Burns of the Sacramento Sports Commission phoned me with the news about 10 minutes after the noon vote at the Istituto Scientifico A. Volta in the coastal town of Riccione, Italy. Bob called the 2-hour session of presentations, speeches and questions “grueling.”
The capital of California thus ended the current European lock on the world’s most prestigious masters meet. The 2005 event was in San Sebastian, Spain; this year’s it’s Riccione; and in 2009 the worlds are in Lahti, Finland. This will be third world masters outdoor meet in the United States; Eugene, Oregon, hosted a memorable show in 1989, when the world body was known as WAVA (World Association of Veteran Athletes).
According to Burns, who was media director of the 2000 U.S. Olympic Trials in Sacramento, representatives of his Northern California city faced tough delegate questioning about visa rules. Some nations fear they’ll have a hard time attaining tourist visas to the United States. But Burns said Bill Collins, the M55 double sprint champion who spoke on Sacramento’s behalf, parried questions from the floor and tackled the visa issue head-on — saying local organizers would do everything they could to get folks to California short of changing U.S. law.
Joy Upshaw-Margerum, a W45 world sprint champion, also spoke for Sacramento. She represented the host USATF Pacific Association, her presence dashing rumors that the local USATF association wasn’t involved in the Sacto bid.
If visa considerations were Sacramento’s Achilles’ heel, Port Alegre was hobbled by its plans to stage the meet in January. The last time the WMA world meet was held Down Under — in Brisbane, Australia — the meet took place July 4-14, 2001. Cool but more convenient to the vast majority of masters.
Under WMA bylaws, delegates to the General Assembly are allocated thusly:
Each Affiliate (nation) shall be entitled to one delegate and also one additional delegate for each 100 of its competitors in the last three WMA World Championships Stadia (excluding the current Championships), but no Affiliate shall be entitled to more than five delegates.
So the biggest 5-vote blocs were from Britain, Germany, France and Spain (as well as Canada, Australia and the United States, probably). The major Eurovets nations, Burns said, favored the Sacramento bid.
Despite what they considered a far-superior technical bid (which included the addition of a fourth practice or competition venue at American River College), Sacramento’s reps were sweating bullets until the vote was announced. They feared that Beccalli, married to a Brazilian masters official, would try something sneaky to make good on his oft-stated pledge to bring the world meet to his part-time home.
In the weeks leading up to the vote, in fact, several officials of World Masters Athletics engaged in a disinformation campaign against Sacramento, suggesting in email to various affiliates that Sacto was making a “soft bid” and that its real intention was winning the 2013 meet.
But Burns and fellow rep John McCasey, who manned a booth during the Riccione meet, made it clear to everyone who would listen that Sacramento’s bid was serious. “We had constant traffic” at the booth, Burns said, with Sacramento giving special attention to the team managers who visited. Earlier, the Sactofolk posted two detailed arguments for their city on the SacSports Web site.
Porto Alegre went first at the General Assembly, but its presentation focused on local tourism. Sacramento, by contrast, focused on the athletic experience. (Sacto’s tourism potential was touted as well, but Europeans — the bulk of the voters — know that Disneyland and the Golden Gate Bridge can’t be too far away.)
Burns said the 25-minute Sacramento presentation didn’t start off well. The audio portion of their PowerPoint show wasn’t working, so McCasey (the Sacramento Sports Commission’s CEO) had to provide live narration.
An issue that became a nonissue was the notorious Sacramento heat. Despite lack of a shade structure for the main grandstands at Sacramento State University (site of the 2000 and 2004 U.S. Olympic Trials), the local organizers say delegates didn’t dwell on the weather. Maybe one question came up, Burns said.
As it turns out, the 2003 Puerto Rico worlds suffered tropical storms; and the first day at Riccione saw hurricane-strength winds before conditions turned gentle. So WMA delegates didn’t hold the heat against Sacramento, especially with its promise of a practice track. (Riccione entrants have been heard to complain about a lack of a practice facility during the meet.)
Many more details of the Riccione General Assembly are still to be learned — including the fate of several rules-change proposals — but at least this 9/11 turned out to be a happy moment for America.
Congratulations to Sacramento. See U in 2011.
13 Responses
As a Sac local, I cannot tell you how exciting this is! Thanks to all of those who put in the hard work to make this bid a winner!
Congratulations to the Sacramento organizers. I’ve always wanted to attend the world championships, but as a father of 5, I could never justify spending a couple of thousand dollars to go to Spain/Italy/Finland to compete. Now I just hope my knee holds on until 2011 so I can head to California. Does Southwest Airlines fly to Sacramento?
Yipee!
Yes Ken, SWA flies to Sacramento. Hope to see you in 2011!
As someone who hasn’t been able to afford racing in a Masters World Championships, this really is unexpected good news. Especially since I turn 50 in June of 2011! But good grief, that only gives me 4 years to decide which events to run!
That is great news! Congratulations and thanks to all who worked getting the bid prepared and selected. I have yet to compete at a World Championships and would really like to do so. This may be my chance, but it assumes I can stay healthy, motivated and competitive till then.
congratulations to the hard-working and dedicated bid participants.
I was 39 in 1995 and missed competing in Buffao NY, which I could have driven to, and also I was on a ‘downward slide” toward getting out of the sport- so this is excellent motivation to continue. What age group will Tom Fahey be in?
These comments reinforce my position, whenever they bring up supporting athletes from ‘poor’ countries. There are many athletes from the ‘well off’ countries, like Canada) who cannot afford to travel around the world to a Championship.
Sacramento is a great venue, with plenty of reasonably priced hotels and restaurants. It is close to Lake Tahoe and San Francisco, so it will make a great tourist destination.
So, I’m excited that Sacto will host the worlds but it could be bittersweet for me. Why? Because of a very important question here that could almost completely deflate my excitement: In 2011, I will be 34 during the time the Worlds are being held in July and won’t turn 35 till October…am I completely out of luck? Knowing my luck, I probably am…the Worlds are in Sacto, within driving distance of Oregon and I can’t even compete?!?!? Please, someone give me some good news!
Johnny,
Yeah, U have to be 35 as of the first day of the meet to enter worlds. However, world indoor championships are held every even-numbered year, so U should be good to go for the 2012 World Masters Indoor Championships — which usually is held in March. Site hasn’t been selected yet.
And submasters (ages 30 to 34) are welcome at most USATF masters meets.
Stay in shape!
I was afraid of that…thanks for the info, Ken. I guess I should just start saving my money now for wherever 2013 Worlds ends up and hope it’s nice place to go on vacation! Nothing against Sacto but while it’s first rate for track and field facilities, it’s not my first choice for vacation spots. Good luck to those of you still competing in Riccione…
Sweet!!! 2011 is the year I turn 40 … my best opportunity to make an impact in the M40 group!
In my case, my problem is not with affording to travel, but with getting a visa for places like Europe and Australia (since I am not a citizen of the US or any other country which doesn’t need visas for such places). But my US visa is valid past 2011, so Sacramento here I come!
I’ll just be turning 50– See you in Sacramento Val, Sully
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