I agree ... We should be competing at distances that qualify internationally
for races ...
While I understand that the genereal public in the United States relates
better to the mile, individuals go to track meets not to watch "events" but
to watch compeitors and competitions .. It doesn't matter whether we run the
mile or 1500 meters if we do not have competitive individuals in it the
event .. Is it any coincidence that our last great miler was Steve Scott and
since his time there has not been much interest in the event indoors ??
Sooner or later everything comes back to the competition on the track ..
That has to be there or peple aren't goign to watch .. NO matter what events
you choose to run or waht gimicks you can come up with to try to attract
people to events - indoors or outdoors .. Competition fills the seats and
nothing more .. And here in the United States we seem to appreciate
competitioin more when our own are involved (Look at how televesion covers
the WCs and OGs) .. So when we are not competitive in events it really
doesn't matter how we choose to run them ...
Conway Hill
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>From: "Wayne T. Armbrust" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Reply-To: "Wayne T. Armbrust" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Subject: Re: t-and-f: Imperialist
>Date: Mon, 19 Feb 2001 14:13:45 -0600
>
>Netters,
>
>While we are on this thread I'll take the opportunity to sound off about
>one of my pet peeves, the indoor mile run. The mile run was retained as
>the only non-metric, non-standard event when indoor track went metric
>over twenty years ago , supposedly because it was thought that fans
>wouldn't attend a meet that didn't include the mile. Well, It doesn't
>seem to have worked too well. With only one or two exceptions, all of
>the classic indoor invitational meets of twenty years ago have fallen on
>hard times, with most having gone belly up. In fact, at least two of
>the classic meets that had sell-outs while contesting the 1500 ( the
>Cleveland K of C and the U. S. Olympic Invitational) disappeared after
>going back (in the case of the former) or switching (in the case of the
>latter) to the mile. It's obvious that the mile has not been the
>salvation of indoor track in this country and it's difficult to see how
>things could be worse if we ran the 1500 like the rest of the world.
>The indoor mile is not quite (because it is recognized as a record event
>by the IAAF) but almost in the same class as the truly wacky events we
>run in this country, the 1600, 3200, and 8 hurdle 300 hurdles run in our
>high schools which are contested nowhere else.
>
>If it were simply the fact that running the mile indoors put us out of
>step with the rest of the world I wouldn't be nearly as concerned.
>There is, however, a much more important reason not to run the mile
>indoors: It makes qualifying for the Indoor World Championships very
>difficult to do in the indoor season leading up to the Championships.
>In fact, there are only two U.S. men qualified for the World Indoor
>Championships who got their qualifying mark indoors, Paul McMullen and
>Richard Boulet, and both got their marks last year en route to a mile
>time. The closest any man has come this year is Alan Webb - off by over
>a second. Looking at women's marks, there are four who have qualifying
>marks made indoors, Regina Jacobs, Amy Rudolph, Sheri Kenah, and Debbie
>Marshall-Grant. All but Rudolph's mark was made last year, and like the
>men, all were en route times. Thus, we have a grand total of one
>athlete qualifying with an indoor time from this year, and that with
>standards that seem relatively soft. I never ran the 1500 or mile, but
>I have coached a lot of people who have, and I know that qualifying with
>a 1500 time en route to a mile is certainly doing it the hard way. What
>is even worse, it seems that of all the major indoor meets, only the New
>Balance meets run in New York and Boston over the two years even took
>1500 times.
>
>I do realize that it is possible to qualify for the World Indoor
>Championships with an outdoor time, but a person ought to be able to do
>it indoors, in a domestic meet, and without having to run another 109+
>meters!
>
>--
>Wayne T. Armbrust, Ph.D.
>[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Computomarx™
>3604 Grant Ct.
>Columbia MO 65203-5800 USA
>(573) 445-6675 (voice & FAX)
>http://www.Computomarx.com
>"Know the difference between right and wrong...
>Always give your best effort...
>Treat others the way you'd like to be treated..."
>- Coach Bill Sudeck (1926-2000)
>
>
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