Title: Field events
Garry and copy to T&F list
I picked out this comment in one of your Lists postings:
If you don't care much about the field events (which probably fits most of
the people on this list; and i don't say that in any pejorative fashion),
I find that absolutely astonishing - because List members are presumably those who actually go to meetings.
Now it is true that the Media derides field events - TV cannot squeeze them into short attention spans and does not know exactly when the key action will take place. The people who make sporting decisions (in Britain soccer fans, in the US presumably football and baseball fans etc.) do not understand our sport and cover it accordingly - see the debate over NBC coverage.
We are much more fortunate in Europe, but American influence creeps in and many programmes are seriously marred by excess interviewing and banal comments by ex-athletes goimng away form what the gast majority of viewers want, and that is ACTION. It needs very skilful editing and directing if field events are to be covered properly - and all too few directors have experience of handling our very complicated sport.
But people who actually go and watch track meets nearly always enjoy the field events - just watch how they ignore the start of sprints while they clap and cheer triple jumpers and high jumpers etc.
The public at meetings can follow the progress of field athletes over a protracted period of time - and for such watchers field events and long distance races are generally preferable to sprints - or at least that is my experience over many years.
That is not to under-estimate the crowd-appeal of the super-stars of the sprints, and many fans love to see them but the races themselves are too short to allow the build-up of interest.
Peter Matthews,
Editor International Athletics Annual, Co-publisher Athletics International
10 Madgeways Close, Great Amwell, Ware, Herts SG12 9RU, England
Tel. 44 (0)1920 870434, Fax 44 (0)1920 877392
