Greetings, all: Brisbane organizers of the 14th World Veterans Athletic Championships are outwardly optimistic but privately nervous about entries for the biennial masters meet July 4-14, 2001, in northeast coastal Australia. The event even risks falling short of the size of the 1987 WAVA meet in Melbourne. Meet officials have pushed back the entry deadline from March 1 to April 20 (with the U.S. deadline being April 15). Other evidence for a shortfall of competitors comes from Germany, a traditional WAVA power, where masters webmaster Robert Koop reports: "My last information about the German entries is a number of 350/400 masters (registered to attend). This is 20 percent less than the (1997) Durban or (1999) Gateshead entries from Germany." In the United States, WAVA team manager Don Austin says he has 384 masters athletes registered -- a 30 percent drop from the 540 who went to Gateshead two years ago and far less than the 600 expected this year. "With the extension, I don't expect too many more entries," Austin reports. He thinks the lower numbers are a result of several factors, including the expense of an Australian trip, the current shaky status of the U.S. economy, "no challenge of qualifying standards" and competition from three major U.S. masters meets (the just-concluded Boston indoor nationals plus two national meets this summer in Baton Rouge, Louisiana). Austin also suspects that some athletes are waiting until the last minute to see if they are healthy enough -- and are waiting for meet rosters to be posted online to see who's entered -- and if they have a chance of winning. The world WAVA meet has been held every off-numbered year since 1975, when Toronto hosted 1,408 athletes -- almost all paying their own way to a meet with five-year age groups starting at 35 for women and 40 for men. The progression since then: 1977 Gothenberg, Sweden, 2,750 1979 Hannover, Germany, 3,126 1981 Christchurch, New Zealand, 2,400 1983 San Juan, Puerto Rico, 1,935 1985 Rome 4,330 1987 Melbourne 4,817 1989 Eugene, Oregon, USA 4,754 1991 Turku, Finland, 4,802 1993 Miyazaki, Japan, 12,178 (the number was inflated by the huge number of Japan entries in the marathon) 1995 Buffalo, New York, USA, 5,335 1997 Durban, South Africa, 5,788 1999 Gateshead, Great Britain, 5,804 Meanwhile, no word has arrived yet on the fate of the 2003 world WAVA meet. Originally awarded to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, based on a vote by the WAVA General Assembly in 1999 at Gateshead, the Malaysian meet was yanked by the WAVA Council in January 2001. WAVA's official statement by President Torsten Carlius of Sweden has not been updated since its posting on the WAVA Web site (http://www.wava.org) in mid-January: It said: "(Carlius) states that last March, when some question arose, he and several others of the WAVA Council visited Kuala Lumpur to specifically investigate the local organizing committee (LOC) organization and its plans to conduct the Championships. "They were favorably impressed with the facilities and the level and ability of the LOC personnel in place at that time. Therefore, they recommended that the Championships go on as planned. "However, since that time, the composition of the LOC has changed considerably and some of the most influential members have left or have been forced out. All of this has occurred without notification or consultation with WAVA. "President Carlius visited again last fall and carefully set clear minimum objectives for the LOC and a clear deadline of the 22nd of December for achieving those objectives. That deadline, and a generous grace period, passed without any positive action and lead directly to the withdrawal of the Championships by WAVA. He further states that the 2003 Championship is currently being offered to Puerto Rico, who was the runner-up in the competitive bid held at the 1999 WAVA General Assembly in Gateshead, England. "Puerto Rico is now checking facility and housing availability, and public and private support and sponsorship. They are also considering their ability to put together an effective LOC to organize, fund, staff, and prepare for the Championships in the two and one-half years remaining." The last time I checked -- in the past week -- no verdict had been rendered on Puerto Rico hosting the 2003 WAVA meet. Why? Carlius was on vacation. Meanwhile, the slate of candidates to host the 2005 WAVA meet firmed up, with USATF Masters Committee choosing Sacramento, California, as America's bid city. This comes three months after USATF Masters voted against supporting Sacramento's bid since other cities weren't invited to submit their own bids. USATF Masters T&F Chairman George Mathews has reported: "Since that time, site visits have been made to Sacramento and solicitation to other cities has been made. Sacramento did very well on the site visits. Baton Rouge showed interest in holding the event but decided not to pursue it after consideration. "Sacramento also presented very viable financial and organizational plans.The Masters Executive Committee voted to unanimously support Sacramento as the US bidder for WAVA 2005. On March 4, 2001, the USATF Board of Directors unanimously voted to support Sacramento as the US bidder for WAVA 2005 with the addendum that they sign a hold harmless letter. "This was complied with and on March 9, 2001, USATF notified WAVA that Sacramento was to be the US bidder for WAVA 2005. We look forward to a successful campaign to bring the WAVA Championship back to the USA." One way of boosting participation in the world WAVA meet is offering inducements for winners who meet certain performance standards. The IAAF has incredible wealth (often from broadcast revenues of showing athletes who later turn up in veterans competition), and could easily afford the pittance of a few million U.S. dollars to underwrite travel costs of defending world veterans champions. Ken Stone http://www.masterstrack.com
