USATF indoor meet director: No shot entries beyond locals

Jamie Koch

I’m often told, “He who pays the piper calls the tune.” That seems to be the case with the USA National Indoor Track & Field Championships next month in Albuquerque. Four masters exhibitions are set for the meet, but two — the men’s shot and men’s pole vault — are being run by local masters. Brad Winter, a local city councilman, is in charge of the vault, which he’ll take part in. He shared information about this event far and wide. And his field will come from across the country, including several record holders. By contrast, nothing was said about the men’s shot, overseen by Jamie Koch, until I noticed its inclusion on the official schedule. Fortunately, a Midwestern thrower sought out more details and shared them with me, which led to a revealing email note from meet director Rich Ceronie, who explained that local folks were in charge of the vault and shot, and didn’t have to advertise the events.

Of course, that may not wash with the vast majority of masters throwers, who have been aching for their own exhibition at open nationals for years. When they finally get an event, who’s invited? Who’s allowed to enter? 
Who knows? The field hasn’t been named.
But the organizer of the masters shot at open nationals is said to be an accomplished M70 thrower named Jamie Koch (pronounced “Cook”), a one-time president of the University of New Mexico Board of Regents. Jamie won the M70 shot at the 2005 World Masters Games in Edmonton, Alberta. So he’s no slouch.  
But Jamie needs to realize that USATF nationals aren’t his private playpen. So we’ll see if he relents on the locals-only nature of the field.

Here’s my email exchange with meet director Ceronie:

—–Original Message—–
From: Richard Ceronie 
To: trackceo@aol.com
Cc: jbfrankl@unm.edu
Sent: Tue, Jan 12, 2010 7:02 pm
Subject: Re: Fwd: Masters shot exhibition at USA indoor meet

Mr. Stone:

Thank you for copying me of your original e-mail to Coach Franklin. As meet director of the USA Indoor Championships let me clarify for you what is happening. Its amazing to me how such misinformation can get out. At the USA Championships USATF allows the LOC (Local Organizing Committee) to host two exhibition events if they so desire. From my understanding they can be any two events with any criteria so we could have high schools girls 4×40’s, or elementary school kids 60 meter dash. Given I just got here in October, the decision had been made when the bid was submitted earlier in 2009 that there would be a “masters level” exhibition Pole Vault given one of our local City
Councilmen is an avid vaulter, and a “masters level” Shot Put since one of our Board of Regents is such. 

This was intended to be comprised of about 6-8 local competitors or people they wanted to compete with. It is not even being officiated by USATF, but most likely by our local volunteer organization or even our New Mexico coaching staff. So this is not an event for the USA Master Association and we will not be opening it up to be more than what it was intended to be. 

So in summary, this should not be publicized for being a national event since it was just intended to be some local folks getting together for a friendly competition. I trust this will assist in clarifying the situation.

Many thanks,
Rich Ceronie

Here’s my reply to Rich:

Many thanks for the quick reply and honest explanation.

Although everything U say appears true and reasonable, the perception may be quite different.

In fact, expect some blowback.

Mr. Koch’s shot exhibition — unlike Brad’s vault — will be seen as a self-indulgent exercise with a bunch of throwing buddies. At least Brad’s vault field has a number of world-class jumpers, and many from outside New Mexico.

The masters community is acutely aware of the danger of embarrassment on a national stage. If the distances achieved in the masters shot aren’t respectable, the USATF Masters T&F Committee may be held accountable, not your LOC. Masters exhibitions are supposed to be a showcase.

It remains to be seen if the masters shot field achieves that standard.

Best of luck.

ken

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January 12, 2010

7 Responses

  1. Mary Harada - January 13, 2010

    Just curious -is this something new for the USATF nationals? I do not recall seeing this sort of exhibition for local masters when the nationals were in Boston.

  2. Uncle Ben - January 13, 2010

    Boston had lots of local youth races but not masters.

  3. Steve Vaitones - January 13, 2010

    For five years at the USA National indoor meet in Boston, we had the opportunity to include several local exhibition events, similar to the statements in the message from Rich Ceronie above.
    We opted for a youth age 14-and-under 4×200 for boys and girls, and a New England states 4×400 for all-star scholastic teams from the 6 states.
    Getting kids into a big show to see the athletes up close and see the meet was important for building interest and excitement with the youth. There was no issue trying to fill the lanes, and the energy level was high, as it became very much a tradition.
    The youth events also sell tickets.
    Masters events were not considered.
    Exhibition events are just that. There is no entitlement. They are not necessarily a “showcase”. We had several very slow youth relays, spectators didn’t care, all had a good time, and that was no reflection on our youth program. My guess is that only complaints about performances will come from masters throws fans with age grading tables in hand. Ken, your response to Rich was rather pompous.
    And a personal opinion – anytime there is a fully open masters exhibition event at the USA National indoor or outdoor, I think that part of the entry acceptance should be that the individual must be entered and compete in the corresponding masters national meet. Someone wants to compete in a big stage for whatever reason, they should be supporting their own age group nationals.
    Steve Vaitones

  4. Anonymous - January 13, 2010

    I hope we get an indoor or outdoor open nationals in my state. I’ve got some connections and I’ll get to have my event run as an exibition. Man, would that be awesome! I can then call my bud who got married last month and maybe in the next few years at his overdue kick ass bachelour party we can conclude it at the next mornings race at Nationals! Ha! What a scene man , stretching and warming up next to Tyson Gay all hung over trying not to puke all over my race shoes! Yeah buddy all I need are my friends, tasty waves, a cool buzz and I’m fine! I’ll be Rockin’like David Lee Roth and Van Halen Dude, YEAH!! Is that pompous enough for you Stevo? This is an exibition at an Open Nationals event with all eyes on it. A race or event that is just some old buddys getting together with no age groups and as Mr. Ceronie has written to Ken, no real officials running the event is a bad scene all together. Will they even have to weigh-in the implements? What if one of them says they broke a national record. Then what? You think it makes any sense that a throws event as an exibition at an Open Nationals will not count due to not complying with USATF guidelines? So Steve, I guess you had 2 boys and 2 girls run on the same 4×200 relay team and the ages of all four runners varied from 8 years old to 14? I’ll bet there were boys races and girls races. Ages running with simular ages. This shot put masters exibition has none of that. When meet director Mr. Ceronie says, ” So in summary, this should not be publicized for being a national event since it was just intended to be some local folks getting together for a friendly competition” Really? You just had to have to have a friendly competition with your personal friends at a USATF Open Nationals? Why post it on the Open Nationals events schedule if your not planning to have it open to fellow State throwers or follow any age groups, USATF guidelines or rules. Plenty of time to see if any New Mexico residents will be turned away from entering this “Friendly event”. I guess if this is acceptable to all, in the future, someone that has connections with Open National Championship meet officials may be able to get a youth high jump exibition going and instead they use the time slotted for the exibition for a Bar-Mitzvah party or Sweet 16 and use the high jump pit like those those blow-up, bouncing moon walk contraptions they use at parties for kids. I mean why not? I love this idea!

  5. John P. - January 13, 2010

    It’s a shame that this meets exibition is bypassing the chance to showcase some of the best masters shot puters in the southwest, nation and world. Because the western part of the nation is so spread out you would not see these throwers together at a meet as in the north east part of the country unless it where at a championship meet. A few throwers that come to mind are from Arizona, Landa, Mueller, Shairras, Edwards. Texas, Patridge. Colorado, Giroard and I think Colorado or Wyoming has Lindsay. All great throwers and with the New Mexico group would have really made for a treat for all athletes to watch young and old I think. We’ll never know though and its too bad.

  6. Ken Stone - January 13, 2010

    Meet director Rich Ceronie just wrote me:
    Just an FYI. Coach Franklin just met with Mr. Koch and shared with him your first e-mail. Mr. Koch has indicated he will act as coordinator of the event, and will provide us the names of those competing.

  7. John Stilbert - January 14, 2010

    Somebody take pictures of the competition and send them to Ken!

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