The IAAF World Athletics Tour

The newly launched IAAF World Athletics Tour which counts 24 meetings over 5 continents is only one of the many ways the IAAF is trying to improve its calendar of events. David Powell spoke to IAAF General Secretary Pierre Weiss about how the sport is changing

On the eve of the Bislett Games in Oslo, at the launch of a new Golden League season, the athletes on stage were asked a question about the future of their sport. "If you could make one change what would it be?" Jeremy Wariner replied that his change would be more exposure on television in the United States and Kajsa Bergqvist said that, more than anything, she longed for an end to drug abuse. "It is sad that often the big stories in the papers are about doping when so few are taking illegal substances," Bergqvist lamented.

Two brilliant athletes, the world and Olympic men's 400 metres champion and the women's high jump world champion, were effectively singing from the same hymn sheet. Their biggest complaint was with the media. We in the media would argue back that athletics has neglected in recent years to do all that it could to help itself.

At a time when star names were being lost in their droves to retirement or declining form - Michael Johnson and Maurice Greene being an example of each - the Grand Prix circuit has lacked imagination and identity.

It is a subject which the IAAF is now tackling with new vigour, not only in terms of the appeal of the international circuit but in the way that national and continental championships fit into the fabric of the worldwide scene. Justin Gatlin, for one, welcomed developments.

"The changes opens the door for more athletes to go out and be successful throughout the year," the Olympic and World 100m champion said. Gatlin's fundamental complaint - "track and field can be boring and elongated for spectators when people do not know what is going on" - is one area that has been tackled.

A new global circuit of one-day meetings, announced by the IAAF Council last November, and introduced this year, sees many changes, among them a revised system by which athletes qualify for the World Athletics Final.

"2006 is a big change compared with the 2005 season and one of the biggest changes is the easy-to-understand way to score points," said Pierre Weiss, the IAAF acting general secretary. Weiss acknowledged the difficulty that the public had in following the old system using the IAAF World Rankings.

"I have a copy at home, you maybe as well, but nobody else, and the fans could not follow it at home," said Weiss, who was appointed in March, until the next IAAF Congress in August 2007.

"The past system, with the scoring table, could give you the feeling that we were hiding the way to calculate the rankings." Now, instead of using rankings, points are awarded to the top eight athletes - and the top 12 for the middle distance events - at each qualifying meeting.

For winners of Golden League and Super Grand Prix meetings, 20 points are awarded, down to four for eighth. For Grand Prix meetings, 10 points go to each winner, down to two for eighth. At designated area permit meetings, athletes score six points for a victory down to one for fourth place. For breaking a World record, there are six bonus points. For equalling a World record there are three bonus points.

The leading seven points scorers in each discipline, based on an athlete's five best results (four in the throws), qualify for the final. In events of 1500m or longer, the 11 leading scorers advance. Competitors must have scored points in at least three meetings and, in the event of a tie, the athlete with best seasonal mark qualifies for the final. This leaves the IAAF with a reserved right to invite one wild-card athlete per event into the final.

All of this falls under the umbrella of newly established World Athletics Tour, which began with the Grand Prix in Melbourne on 9 March and runs for six months through to the World Athletics Final in Stuttgart on 9 and 10 September. Under the IAAF brand there are now 24 meetings compared with 34 in 2005. At least one meeting from each continent is included in the tour. They are divided into two levels.

At the higher level are the six Golden League meetings (Oslo, Paris, Rome, Zurich, Brussels, Berlin) and six Super Grand Prix meetings (Doha, Athens, Lausanne, Stockholm, London, Monaco). At the second level are 12 Grand Prix meetings (Melbourne, Dakar, Osaka, Belem, Hengelo, Eugene, Ostrava, Gateshead, Madrid, Helsinki, Rieti, Zagreb). Among the 10 meetings downgraded are Lille and Turin. "Seven are European," said Weiss. "Some had the IAAF title but were not organised to IAAF standards. These were giving a poor image for our sport." There will be an annual evaluation.

Weiss argues that the most important aspect for any meeting to achieve the IAAF standard is "a good crowd - even before the technical conduct of the competition." He adds: "If you have what happened in Paris, in the Grand Prix Final of 2002 - Tim Mongtomery...World record...9.78... empty stadium - this is counter-productive. Then, one year later, Athens World record (Asafa Powell, 9.77)...again an empty stadium. The working group proposal was to downgrade Athens from the top level to the second level but the council did not follow the recommendation."

Another issue which enlivened the Golden League launch in Oslo was the decision to restructure the payment of the $1m jackpot in 2006. Instead of the jackpot being shared between athletes who win at all six Golden League meetings - or banked by a sole winner, as was the case last season with triple jumper Tatyana Lebedeva - only $500,000 goes to that category now.
The other $500,000 will be divided between athletes who win at least five meetings.

This means, for example, that if one athlete wins at all six meetings and three others win at five, the six-times winner would receive $625,000 and the three five-times winners $125,000 each. If two athletes win at six meetings, and three others win at five, the two six-times winners would receive $350,000 each and the three five-times winners $100,000 each. While the media broadly argues that the single $1m jackpot is the best headline story, and therefore likely to bring most publicity to the sport, the IAAF concluded that risk of being left without a winner was too great.

Although it has never happened, Weiss said that it was too close a call last year to chance it again. "The $1m jackpot for winners at all six meetings was easy to understand, I agree," said the secretary. "But last year, after four meetings, we had left only [Christine] Arron and Lebedeva.

It could be, and we almost had the situation last year, that after four meetings we have nobody left for the Golden League. This would lead to the situation where we would save $1m but we would kill the interest. Why should we go to Berlin, why go to Zurich?

"The obligation to win on all six stops on the circuit could lead to the situation that, after four or five meetings, you cannot have a winner and this would kill the concept of the Golden League totally. This is a concept we have discussed in the past. It never happened but it could have happened last year. We were scared.

Last year, after three meetings, we had only two athletes left. After four meetings we had only one left. Arron was beaten in Zurich so we had only Lebedeva for Brussels and Berlin."

Furthermore, Weiss argues, once an athlete is out of Golden League contention, he or she is less likely to reappear when recovered, thus potentially stripping the cicruit's most prestigious meetings of the biggest names. "If a top athlete gets injured, and misses one meet, there is no interest in him competing in the others," said Weiss. "The other meetings would lose that athlete. If an athlete is injured, or sick, they are not interested any more in the Golden League."

This is an especially important summer for the Golden League for, as Lamine Diack, the IAAF President, said: "With this being the only year in which there are no major international championships [World Championships] or Olympic Games, the athletes can really focus on this event, which is the Golden League. I am convinced that this new concept, which gives more opportunities for athletes to share in the $1m prize, will make the Golden League even more attractive to the public.

"Twice we have had just one winner which, deservedly for Maria Mutola and Tatyana Lebedeva, made great press and TV headlines. But, for the public to become even more passionate about this series on a long-term basis, it is surely better for more of our stars to remain in the battle for at least a share of the jackpot for longer each season." Bergqvist, in her first Golden League season since 2003, said it provided "the biggest competitions, the best crowds".

Under the IAAF World Plan, a meeting of governing body senior staff and representatives from each of the areas took place in Paris on 15 June.

Perhaps the most significant development was a proposal to give continental champions automatic qualification for the World Championships. This could be effective from results this year, qualifying athletes for the 2007 World Championships in Osaka. This is part of the move to give greater meaning to each athletics meeting. There exists a concern that too many meetings take place without relevance to what happens next.

"The areas had one concern - they are saying that the top athletes are not competing in their championships," said Weiss. "That is maybe not so much the case in Europe but in the other areas. So there is a proposal that the area champion will be automatically qualified for the World Championships irrelevant to his or her performance. If, for example, at the European Championships in Gothenburg this summer, the 5000m race is tactical, and the winner records 14:10, he will not have achieved the standard to go to Osaka. He will nevertheless be considered as having achieved the standard.

"So all the area champions will be considered as being qualified for the Osaka World Championships irrelevant to the performance achieved in the area championships. For Europe, it probably applies only for some tactical races in the long distances but, in Africa, it applies to all the field events. So there is a great incentive for the best athletes of the continent to compete in the continental championships.

"The problem to be solved is to ensure that the best athletes from Africa compete in the African Championships and this is an incentive for the best discus thrower in Africa to go to Mauritius this year. This will be a proposal to the council meeting in August. The council meeting will be held in August in Beijing after the African Championships, in Mauritius, and the European Championships, in Gothenburg, but it could have a retroactive effect."

In the continuing attempt to harmonise the calendar, the IAAF is to set one weekend each season as its suggested date for national championships.

"We have a conflict of interest," said Weiss. "When a federation organises a championship when there is a Golden League meeting, or Super Grand Prix meeting, somewhere else, the athletes sometimes prefer to compete in European meetings where they get money and not in their home country.

"It is a proposal that, maybe starting in 2008, we will have one weekend, in June or July, which is a window for the national championships and we will not accept other meetings organised during this weekend. That does not oblige, for example, the United Kingdom, or France, or Italy to do their championships that weekend but we are at least trying to help them.

If they decide to have their championshps on another date they will maybe clash with another meet. This is what we call harmonisation of the calendar - World Championships, Area Championships, National Championships and meetings."

Many challenges remain. An attempt to 'harmoninse' the continental championships remains a frustration for Weiss. "We tried to find a harmonisation of the calendar and the conclusion is that it is almost impossible," the secretary said. "As long as our continental associations organise their area championships in different years it will not work. This year, in 2006, we have Europe in Gothenburg and Africa in Mauritius. But South America, Asia, NACAC and Oceania will hold their championships in 2007.

"It would have helped in the coordination of the calendar (to have them all in the same year) but everybody has a reason. Our dream will not become reality but we understand and respect the arguments. This year Europe and Africa are having their championships in the same week and this is fantastic for the athletes. But, for 2007, it is out of the question.”

Oceania must hold their championships when it is summer in Oceania, which means in January, and Asia will do their championships in August just before going to Osaka.

"The European Championships are every four years, all the others have their continental championships every two years. Asia is saying that if they hold the area championships every two years, in the same year as Europe, it means every second one will be in the year of the Olympic Games and nobody will compete in the Asian Championships. If they hold their area championships every two years they have no choice but to do them as a qualification possibility to go to the World Championships.

"Just before the World Championships in Osaka, the Asian Championshps in Lebanon will be held from July 31 to August 5. This is an ideal perfiod to achieve the standard to qualify for Osaka. We are sad that we could not achieve our goal but we understand." Other hurdles that remain include the difficulty of scheduling the Golden League and indoor meetings. "The indoor season is only four weeks' long," said Weiss. "It starts on the last weekend of January and finishes on the last weekend of February.

"For television reasons everybody would like to go on a Saturday and Sunday and we cannot have one big meeting, such as Birmingham, on Saturday and another big meeting, such as Ghent or Liévin, on Sunday." Although this has long been a problem, it is more so now, according to Weiss. "The meetings directors are reluctant to go on a Tuesday or Wednesday or Thursday, which helped in the past to have a balanced calendar," said the secretary.

The lateness of the World Championships next year - the dates for Osaka are August 25 to September 2 - raises difficulties for the Golden League.

Ideally they would take place to a regular pattern but Weiss said: "We have three Golden League meetings after Osaka. We have Zurich on Sept 5 or 6 and, later on, Brussels then Berlin two days later, which is not ideal.

Because the championships are in Japan people have to leave early for training camps and to recover from jetlag so, after August 10, there is no possibility to hold a big meet in Europe."

Published in IAAF Magazine Issue 2 - 2006