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Lead Stories: Saturday, September 6, 2008

Fans’ Perspective: (Day 2)
On Being A Track Fan

Posted June 29th, 2008 at 10:00 AM by Jesse Squire

Section: News & Results, Track & Field, Olympics

I was going to write up a post explaining what makes a track fan (and a road running and cross country fan) but Bob Welch of the Eugene Register-Guard beat me to it and did a much better job than I ever could.

I would only add a couple of things. First, most fans have competed in some version of the sport at some time in their life, and track/field/cross/road is set up in such a way that it’s difficult to be anything but friendly to your competitors. Your close physical proximity with each other and reliance on self rather than teammates allows us to realize the Latin root of the word compete: “to seek together”. So this bleeds over into watching the sport. Even back in the early 60s it was hard for a lot of track fans to hate the Soviet athletes, which is markedly different than how college football fans are. For example, wearing a Michigan football outfit in Columbus might be more dangerous than wearing Crips colors on Bloods turf.
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Fans’ Perspective: (Day 1) The Stadium, The Crowd

Posted June 28th, 2008 at 1:00 PM by Jesse Squire

Section: News & Results, Track & Field, Olympics

Hayward Field is a beautiful old wooden structure. The look and feel is fantastic, but the thing that really gets me is the rumbling sound that only comes from lumber. It brings to mind various elements of a lodge deep in the woods, Fenway Park, and Cedar Point’s Blue Streak. The large roof and its support beams bring up memories of watching the state championships in the mezzanine deck at Ohio Stadium. The whole package most closely resembles my favorite baseball park, the old Tiger Stadium, but really it’s a unique place.

The grandstands have been supplemented by modern steel bleacher-type seating around the curves, and the section at the top of the backstretch is the closest thing to a luxury box you’re going to get in a track stadium in the USA, resembling an 18th-green VIP area at a PGA event.
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The Final Sprint Podcast Highlighted by Running Times

Posted October 29th, 2007 at 9:07 AM by thefinalsprint.com

Section: News & Results, Announcements, Marathons, Cross Country, Track & Field, Resources, Olympics, Special Features, Podcasts, Trail / Ultra

The Final Sprint Podcast, the most listened to running podcast in North America, continues to capture audiences and receive praise from athletes, coaches, journalists, industry leaders and running fans from around the world.

Most recently, Running Times Magazine chose to highlight The Final Sprint Podcast along with Flocasts/Flotrack and the World Championship Sports Network (WCSN) in their October 2007 issue.

The Final Sprint Podcast, launched in January 2007, features three to five audio interviews each week and is hosted by TheFinalSprint.com Editor-in-Chief Adam Jacobs.

Jacobs has proudly welcomed a dynamic and eclectic list of guests, including track & field superstars (Sanya Richards, Ryan Hall, Alan Webb), Olympic marathon medalists (Deena Kastor, Meb Keflezighi), ultra-elite champions (Dean Karnazes, Scott Jurek), coaching icons (Dr. Jack Daniels, Jeff Galloway), courageous heroes (Jim MacLaren, Kathrine Switzer, Billy Mills) and running legends from years past (Gail Devers, Jim Ryun, Grete Waitz).

To listen in, subscribe to the podcast feed, or even download recent episodes right to your mp3 player, please visit: TheFinalSprint.com.

The podcast is also available at no charge in iTunes.

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USATF: 2007 AT&T USA Outdoor Champs mark phenomenal successes

Posted July 6th, 2007 at 3:20 PM by Jeanie Rebb

Section: News & Results, Track & Field

The 2007 AT&T USA Outdoor Track& Field Championships last month in Indianapolis were among the most successful in recent history.

The excitement of close finishes in the middle-distances, a packed house that provided loud encouragement to the athletes, and the fastest 100-200 double in history by Tyson Gay tell a compelling story. Television ratings, Website traffic and merchandise sales all saw significant rises over 2006. These were just a few of countless highlights.

In hard numbers, the meet measures up impressively:

0 - Number of stadium evacuations due to weather.

1 - The number of American records set (Breaux Greer, men’s javelin, 91.29m/299-6).

2 - Number of Visa Champions crowned (Tyson Gay and Tiffany Williams)

4 - Number of national television broadcasts of the meet (2 on NBC, 2 on ESPN2). NBC’s live coverage from 1-3 p.m. on Sunday, June 24, won its time slot and was the #2 sports program of the day on network television. In aggregate, TV ratings for the meet saw a 144 percent increase over 2006.
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