THE PROBLEM WITH ATHLETICS
IN THE SECOND OF A TWO-PARTER, PETER HEWKIN SUGGESTS ATHLETICS SHOULD CAPITALISE ON ITS STRENGTHS AND THE SPORT CAN BENEFIT BETTER FROM ITS UNIQUE SELLING POINTS
PETER HEWKIN
Street athletics: brings the sport to the people for free
MARK SHEARMAN
PART TWO
IN THE first part of this article, I mentioned two critical elements forming the attractiveness of athletics – the meeting of two or three major opponents and the prospect of some specific mark being attained.
Each of these elements poses several important issues.
Unlike tennis player or golfers, athletes have tended to train to ‘peak’ only for specific competitions, rather than to perform day in, day out. In this way they are far more like boxers than other sportspeople. This of course fitted perfectly with the traditional sparsity of high-level competition, but does not lend itself to the modern schedule, hence we often find crowds and TV audiences disappointed by the quite justifiable absences of top athletes at lesser events. Moreover the grand prix model, while not unsuccessful and better suiting the needs of the professional athlete, does not capture the attention in the way that a one-off match-up does. A runner being six-four up, for example, in a series of races lacks the cachet of becoming a gold medallist.