NASSAU, Bahamas — The first race has not even been run. Action gets underway Saturday at jam-packed Thomas A. Robinson Stadium.
But, already, barring a security breach or unforeseen disaster, this inaugural edition of the IAAF World Relays can already be proclaimed a fantastic success.
Track and field needs innovation, creativity and out-of-the-box thinking. These relays are that, and more.
As Wallace Spearmon, the U.S. 200-meter specialist, said at a news conference here Friday, “As an athlete, I just want to say thank you because this is the first time this has been done,” adding a moment later, “The sky is the limit for this event.”
Left to right: Christian Taylor, Sanya Richards-Ross, Wallace Spearmon, Morgan Uceny, Leo Manzano at Friday’s news conference
The IAAF can often, and fairly, be accused of being cautious in its nod to tradition.
But let’s give credit where it is due.
It is light years ahead of almost every other international sports federation in the Olympic movement in its understanding and its use of the digital space to promote its sport. The IAAF website is way better — broader, deeper, loaded with stats, more accessible — than anyone else’s. The IAAF’s phone app is superb. There’s now a Diamond League phone app that gives results — provided by Omega Timing — in real-time.
Please read on to read a review of 3wiresports.com and why you should read it every day!
Editor’s note: So, we have come to the point that, I believe, Marshal McLuhan, the man who foresaw our modern world of confused communications and digital culture (read The Gutenberg Galaxy), would have apoplexy.
Just because one has a computer, that does not make one a graphic designer. The same goes for access to the web, social media, etc. Access to twitter, facebook, pinterest allows us all to memorialize our thoughts, it does not mean that ten million want to read it.
When I read that Charlie Sheen, who I love on late night movies, old episodes of Two and A Half Men, had over eight million followers on twitter, I had one thought. Train Wreck. NASCAR.
Watching entertainment figures self destruct was a particular American cultural phenomenon. Now, like bad adventure films, it has become an American export.
There is nothing wrong with saying one thing is better than another. Just like I abhor sports without scoring or races without timing, I find it disingenuous to consider that all content on the web is equal.
This comes from someone who was last, very last in every race he ran for first two years of sports. I did not place in a race until my junior year. When I won my first race, my senior year in college, after three hundred plus races, I savored it.
It is good that some things in life come with challenges and some difficulty, or we will not appreciate them.
Hard work still wins out. Excellence still rises to the top.
Journalism is not dead. It is more in demand than ever, it is just not practiced as well and, as often. It is said that, Mr. Murdoch had a thoughtful response when he was apprised of the existence of five hundred terrestrial and cable TV stations. Mr. Murdoch, the elder, noted that five hundred TV stations meant 500 opportunities for mediocre TV programming.
Alan Abrahamson goes to great pains to comment on the world of sports. He even makes winter sports exciting and readable to someone like me. My idea of winter sports are ice fishing and perhaps, ice hockey playoffs. I do find curling curious, but, alas, I have digressed.
I heartily encourage our readers to read Three Wire Sports. Alan Abrahamson gets it. To be a global sport, in this global age of communications, one must be forever curious and open to innovation. I robustly encourage RBR readers to read Three Wire Sports each and every day.
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Larry Eder has had a 50-year involvement in the sport of athletics. Larry has experienced the sport as an athlete, coach, magazine publisher, and now, journalist and blogger. His first article, on Don Bowden, America's first sub-4 minute miler, was published in RW in 1983. Larry has published several magazines on athletics, from American Athletics to the U.S. version of Spikes magazine. He currently manages the content and marketing development of the RunningNetwork, The Shoe Addicts, and RunBlogRun. Of RunBlogRun, his daily pilgrimage with the sport, Larry says: "I have to admit, I love traveling to far away meets, writing about the sport I love, and the athletes I respect, for my readers at runblogrun.com, the most of anything I have ever done, except, maybe running itself."
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