My thanks to all of you who took the time to respond to Walt's and my request for your thoughts on our telecast. The least I can do is respond to a number of your points. -- Next year, I will see if we can leave the graphics of the start lists up longer. -- The idea of leaving the camera on the finish line and the clock running is an excellent one; I will try to get that implemented next year. -- When a high jumper appears it woudl be great if we could put on the screen his clearances and misses in that meet, as they do in Europe. -- After we negotiated the rights for the last five of the golden League meets, when the sales department came back with an estimate of the monies that they could get for advertising on the telecast, there was not enough in the budget to send us over to do the meets on site. (Lewis was on site for Zurich for other reasons.) Allof the meets were voiced over in New Jersey, and Bislett, Brussels and Berlin were done "live to tape" as they were occurring. To edit shows like this on the budgets that we have to do track and field, in such a short turnaround time, is a feat in itself. Just ask, Walt Murphy, who has worked for all the networks. We finished the Bislett field events segment two minutes -- literally -- before you saw it on television in your homes. And the Berlin meet finished in Berlin three hours before our telecast started -- and we finished the telecast three and a half minutes before it aired. Lots of pressure to try and get it done well with only minimal editing time and support. -- Some difficulties we face in regard to camera angles include the fact that the host countries provide all the camera work for each of the meets. The only camera that we had over there was for interviews. I had to work off the same camera angles for my commentary that you were seeing. Even when the two shows were voiced over after the fact, we don't have the time to for me to see what I am about to comment on before I voice the event. -- In regard to my comments on watching the center of the track, that remark is geared toward the average sports fan whom I am trying to get to continue watching our telecast, if he has "surfed" onto it and doesn't know the sport well. The victory for first place in hurdles and hundreds at GL meets -- eighty to ninety percent of the time -- comes from the center lanes of the track. I'm trying to help him appreciate the "battle amongst the best." -- In regard to the Paul Tergat situation, Felix Limo is a 20-year-old Kenyan who, coming into the Brussels 10K, had done the following this year: he was 4th in a Charleston (USA) 10K roadrace, 3rd in Tartu at 5K, 2nd in Warsaw, Poland in a 3K, and 14th in Lausanne at 5K. His lifetime best, coming in to the meet, was 13.23, set last year for 5K. One of the the disadvantages of voicing over a meet from the USA is that we are expected to give good commentary and in distance running events pray for a low angle camera shot where we can identify numbers on the runners. Identification is a challenge. In my role, I have to try to remember the form, height and weight of the top group in each race so that I can properly call the race. Limo appeared to me as a lapped runner when Tergat and he exchanged positions. I was shocked when the results were posted to find out that he had stopped running and was given second. There is still controversy in Brussels as to whether he was a lap short! Coming into the race, his lifetime best at 10K was 28.23. The time awarded him in Brussels was 27.04. I believe that the last time I mentioned that he was well under a 27 minute pace was just before he finished his first 68- second lap, and it showed up on the screen. PS> I don't know his final time at the 3K in Berlin but I am told that he was way back. Again, my thanks to many of you for your compliments personally and for the job we do -- we work very hard at it. And to all of you, for taking the time to make our sport better. Larry Rawson
