Schedule Conflict between
adidas Outdoor and Jr Nationals
by John Dye
Elite winners in the adidas Outdoor national championships (formerly
Foot Locker Outdoor) often
pursue higher glory the following week at the USATF Junior Nationals,
which decides members of US teams for international competition.
That will be difficult or impossible this year because the two meets
overlap on the same weekend -- adidas is Friday-Saturday June 15-16 in
Raleigh NC and Jr Nationals are Saturday-Sunday June 16-17 in Richmond
VA.
The two cities are 155 miles of interstate apart, so some athletes will
be able to compete in both events, depending on the order of events.
To facilitate this, the National Scholastic Sports Foundation, manager of
the adidas meet, is providing free busses from Raleigh to
Richmond Friday night and Saturday night.
Some parents and coaches have complained to DyeStat about the schedule
conflict, so we asked Jim Spier of NSSF, to comment on the situation. Here is his response:
The promoters of the outdoor track and field
championships (The National
Scholastic Sports Foundation). have maintained their weekend (usually the
third weekend in June) for the past several years. Whereas USATF normally
schedules their junior championships the following week, the USATF
scheduled
their Junior Championships on the same weekend as the high school outdoor
championships.
The NSSF has been assured by USATF that this will not
happen
in the future. (It is especially disheartening to the NSSF as the reason
that organization is in existence is to help fund athlete's travel to the
USATF Junior championships in order for them to qualify for national
teams.
The NSSF has furnished many tens of thousands dollars since 1991 toward
that
end. That, of course, will not be possible this year).
In an effort to make a bad situation better, the NSSF
has revised their
schedule so that athletes may compete in both meets wherever possible.
Additionally, at their own expense, the NSSF will be furnishing
transportation (in the form of busses) free of charge from Raleigh to
Richmond, VA both Friday and Saturday nights after the competition (June
15-16).
Here is the schedule of the two meets showing which
events have conflicts and which events could double.
Event |
adidas |
USATF |
100 |
Fri trials-finals |
Sun trials-finals |
200, 400, 800,
Mile, hurdles |
Sat Finals |
Sat Prelims |
HJ - W |
Fri |
Sat |
HJ - M |
Sat |
Sun |
PV - W |
Sat |
Sun |
PV - M |
Fri |
Sat |
LJ - W |
Fri |
Sat |
LJ - M |
Fri |
Sat |
TJ - W |
Sat |
Sun |
TJ - M |
Sat |
Sun |
SP - W |
Sat |
Sun |
SP - M |
Fri |
Sat |
DT - W |
Fri |
Sat |
DT - M |
Sat |
Sat |
HT - W |
Fri |
Sat |
HT - M |
Sat |
Sat |
JT - M |
Sat |
Sun |
Walks |
Fri |
Sun |
Steeple |
Sat |
Sun |
Distance |
2-mi Fri |
3k/5k/10k
Sat & Sun |
Jim Spier
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