 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
If it ain't broke ... why does IAAF use odd implements and hurdle heights?
Mike Byrnes diaryParis to Capablanca - it's still a romantic trip to Khaki Countryby Mike Byrnes Casablance via Paris. Two magical cities immortalized in many, many films none more famous, at least to my generation, than CASABLANCA. Casablanca was a love story taking place during World War II starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman. It was recently voted one of the five best films of all time and gave birth to one of the great film lines ever, “Play it again Sam” a line supposedly uttered by Ingrid Bergman. What she actually said was, “Play it Sam,” infuriating her ex-lover Humphrey Bogart who stormed out of his office and then…stood stunned as he saw Bergman. Go rent the movie…you’ll love it. Well, your parents will love it and wonder why you left to go play Grand Auto Theft. The film made an already famous city even more so. Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Josef Stalin met here to discuss the end of WWII. When the conference ended, Churchill prevailed upon FDR to spend a few days vacationing. They motored to Marrakesh, the site of this year's World Youth Championships and a city perhaps more historic than its neighbor, Casablanca. One evening they sat on their balcony and marveled at the beautiful sunset reflecting off the red-gold mountains. Churchill long considered Marrakesh his most favorite city and when his government forced him to spend a few days vacationing, he insisted upon being flown here. We flew in from London; Jim Spier, Joy Kamani and I from Paris. As usual, we, with Mike Kennedy, are the only press representatives from the United States. The plane takes off from Charles DeGaulle International, circles slightly and heads south towards Casablanca. The environs of Paris look like any other major city, too many houses and too few highways. We climb steadily headed for Spain. The vast sea of city gives way to a landscape that reminds one of the western United States…but different. A brown land of long lost rivers and streams suddenly turns into a vast deep green land and one is baffled by the change. The Mediterrean is approaching. The sun reflects dazzlingly off the water and I see a giant silver platter of ever-changing shape with a million tiny flashes like so many birds bursting off a lake. It’s one of the most beautiful sights I’ve ever seen. Far too quickly we leave the Mediterrean behind. Below lies Morocco. I expect to see a vast sea of sand but as usual, an American’s concept of an obscure small country is wrong. Northern Africa is mountainous with many lakes that glow almost luminously although it’s mid-afternoon. Then I realize this is more of the suns reflection making the lakes more like works of art rather than masses of water. I visualize them as being shaped into white gold pieces hanging from a chain of sterling silver, selling for thousands and making me rich. (Ed.Note – Patent Pending…ha!) Then the land becomes flat and khaki. There’s no desert, just dry, barren land where the temperature can reach well over 120 day after day after day. It stretches endlessly broken by sudden bursts of mysterious green. Finally we start our descent into Casablanca. The domes of the many mosques glint in the sun. We flash over tents that can only mean a marketplace. We are in Morocco, the Khaki Country. =============== By Mike Byrnes Have you ever fixed something that didn’t need fixing and ended up breaking it? Did you ever add just a little bit more flavoring to make the cake taste a little better and ruined it? In both cases your intentions were good but the results disastrous. The IAAF, with only good intentions afoot, have done exactly that. Intending to make the events a little easier for the younger athletes, they’ve lowered hurdles, lessened weights and messed up the sport. I’ve just watched the finals of the Boy’s 110 Hurdles, won by American CORDERA JENKINS. His time, a brilliant 13.35…or was it? The hurdles were not at the regulation high school height of 39” nor at the Junior height of 42”. They were set at 36”, the height used for the women’s and the intermediate hurdles. It’s not as if every kid here hasn’t run over the higher barriers, they have. Jenkins has clocked about a 13.89 as a high schooler. In fact, very few athletes here have ever competed over the 36” in other than specials meets to give them a chance to find out what it’s like to run over the baby barriers. All have run many races over the higher hurdles. Why force them to take a step backward?
Speaking to some of the weight throwers at the last World Junior Championships, not a one could understand why they were suddenly forced to throw an implement with which they were totally unfamiliar and had never thrown? All were familiar with the heavier implements, were comfortable with them, had spent hundreds of hours training with them in order to perfect their timing and then, in the biggest meet of their careers, they are forced to compete with an object that is totally foreign to them. Moreover, what do their performances mean? Track and Field is a sport where numbers and records mean everything. Records in the weight and hurdle events have been established over a period in excess of a hundred years. In a World Championship event ones adrenaline flows faster than the snow in an avalanche and an athlete is primed for his/her greatest effort, they come to the realization that the performance means nothing. It’s been made with an alien implement, one that will probably be phased out by a more sensible IAAF in the future. Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished.
|
DyeStat ©1998-2005 |
|
John Dye - founder and editor in chief left, John and Donna Dye |
