All that dazzles is not Diamond!
The IAAF’s ill-conceived and hectic calendar results in the much-touted Diamond League being reduced to a competition sans top stars, writes Aju George Chris.
THE Diamond League, when it was launched last year, was expected to pull the crowd back to the stands within a short span of time. But just a year down the line, that image lies in tatters as meet organisers and coaches are highly disillusioned with the prevalent scenario.
The ideals of the Diamond League were noble and it acted as a level playing field for athletes. By paying the same prize money in all disciplines, be it 100M or shot put, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) recognised all events as equally important. It revitalised some disciplines that had been ignored for long.
But the IAAF seems to have discounted the World Championship and Olympic years, when athletes are keen to prepare the right way and not succumb to injuries. To say that its 2011-12 calendar was ill-conceived would be an understatement. It crammed too many competitions into a short time frame and that took away the importance of the league.
Well begun is half done, they say. Going by the adage, the Diamond League opener, held in Doha last week, should have been bursting at the seams with top stars. But reality was far from it. By scheduling the Jamaica
International Invitational barely 24 hours after the Doha meet, the IAAF snubbed out chances of top sprinters competing in Qatar.
The country has always attracted top stars to its meets since 1997 and Jamaican Asafa Powell had run in Doha last year. The competition, conspicuous by the absence of top stars, had a slew of new meet records and that was its only saving grace.
The Qatar Association of Athletics Federation (QAAF) has sprung into action stung by the setback.
“There’ll be an evaluation report after the end of the 14-leg event. We’ll definitely raise this issue. We can’t afford a repeat of this scenario. The ill-timed Jamaican meet robbed us of top names including Powell, who was ready to run here. Without them, we found it difficult to market the event. It shouldn’t ever happen
again,” said QAAF President Abdullah Ahmed Al Zaini.
Italian Sandro Giovanelli, the QAAF’s Athletes’ Consultant who has been involved in the organisation of Grand Prix races in
“It’s time the QAAF said ‘enough is enough’. I’ll strongly support its case before the world body. The IAAF can’t expect Qatar
Similarly, several voices of discontent have been raised in various parts of the world. Another Italian Renato Canova, one of the shrewdest long distance coaches ever, strongly argued that it was a flawed concept.
“Professionals compete for money and there’s very little of it in the Diamond League. If a runner finishes fourth, he takes home a mere $3,000, which doesn’t even cover his airfare. A professional will always be interested in running one or two races that pay him good appearance money rather than a whole season (seven races) of the league,” said Canova.
“This holds true especially in the World Championships years as the chance of getting injured by running more races is high,” added Canova, who has coached Qatar
First-place winners in each meet wins a purse of $10,000 while the second and thirdplaced athletes will be richer by $6,000 and $4,000 respectively. The top three winners in each meet earn eight, four and two points each. An athlete with the highest number of points in each discipline at the end of the season wins the overall ‘Diamond Race’, worth an additional $40,000 and a diamond trophy.
And then, there is the issue of ambassadors. In 2010, the IAAF had announced a 14-member list of ambassadors, seven men and women, from various disciplines. They had to appear in a mandatory four races per season to promote the series.
But this year, no such lists have been made so far and it is easy to understand why. It has been reliably learnt that the ambassadors, the cream of athletes, were more interested in negotiating individual contracts and bigger payouts rather than becoming ambassadors and racing regularly.
The Doha Jamaica
Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele (5,000M) and Steven Hooker (pole vault), both men, were injured while Yelena Isinbayeva (pole vault), Blanka Vlasic (high jump), Valerie Vili (shot put) and Barbora Spotakova (javelin throw), all women, did not have their events in Doha this year.
Americans Tyson Gay (men’s 100M) and Sanya Richards (women’s 400M) are yet to start their competitive season.
International coaches are another lot frustrated by the poor turn of events. Puerto Rican Victor Lopez, who heads the IAAF’s Coaches’ Commission, was vocal in criticising the world body’s unilateral approach in scheduling events.
“The IAAF didn’t include us in the calendar planning programme despite repeated requests. As a result, the schedule has become too hectic. Coaches from around the world are concerned as there’re injury fears during a World Championship year. Negotiations are on and from ’13, we’ll make sure other stakeholders — athletes, coaches and the International Olympic Committee — are part of the decision-making process,” he said.
IAAF President Lamine Diack, when he visited Doha
“The competition looks quite interesting. It gives us a chance to take the sport’s most elite competition out of Europe for the first time. But the IAAF insists that all events should be co-ordinated well. There’s a need to improve communication within the continental framework and much effort needs to go into it,” he had told Doha Stadium Plus at the time.
But now, the Senegalese administrator has been forced to eat humble pie as he apologised for the miscalculation in Doha
“I agree there’re problems with our annual calendar. We erred by putting two important meets back-to-back. We’ll be more careful in the future and ensure this doesn’t happen again. We apologise for the mix-up,” he said last week.
If the world body is unable to organise its own calendar without giving important meets its due, then God save the sport!
(Published in Doha Stadium Plus, on May 11, 2011)
