The USAT web site indicates that they are yet again looking for bids for the 2005 national championship. According to their announcement, they were in final negotiations with “an eastern city” when the “eastern city” pulled out at the last minute.
http://www.usatriathlon.org/fs_newsPC.asp?File=04-01-2005_0.txt
I guess that means Rochester NY is out of the picture.
Anyone hearing anything about new potential bids for the championship?
BrokenSpoke
Hello,
At this point I think their best bet is to find an existing race in the time frame they want and use it. The website states that when they find the race they will put on a first class national champs.
Well, my opinion is that a first class nationals includes having the venue selected more than 5 months ahead of time. Some races in that time are already filling up or filled. Leaving you with no choice than to either enter your local races and hope they don’t conflict or wait and hope you don’t miss out on a race you want to do.
Styrrell
How many participants usualy race?
I’m not sure,but its a big race. I guess on the order of 1000 or more. Also as its a nationals they like to have smaller(more) waves and a bit of time in between waves.
Styrrell
According to results, here are approximate numbers of finishers for the past four years:
2004 Shreveport - 702
2003 Shreveport - 1070
2002 Coeur d’Alene - 850
2001 Coeur d’Alene - 800
Very interesting to note the huge drop in attendance for 2004 over 2003. I am guessing that many triathletes found the 2003 Shreveport swim to be disgusting and did not want to return, even though the swim was moved to out of the mudhole for 2004. Although the Shreveport race organization was excellent, the race course was really boring and flat and may not have appealed to competitors.
Brokenspoke
The problem is that the Nationals are owned and run by USAT. Existing races aren’t going to give up their proceeds to USAT. Rochester and Little Rock were within weeks of a decision and contract last August, negotiated by Tim Yount. He resigns. Then Dan insisted on a new USAT sub-committee to rethink nationals that likely derailed the contracting process at the 11th hour. I can imagine the indecision created through the fall, then the sub-committee member resigns from the board. Then the orginal proposal for an August date becomes a June date. None of this couldn’t have helped reassure Rochester that USAT leadership (i.e. Board) knew what it was doing. Having worked for City Government I can see the questions raised. I would also wonder what City would step forward to fill the void with only a 5 month lead time.
Hello,
I’m not sure that the USAT “owning” the race has to be a barrier to an existing races stepping up. If USAT insists that the existing race pays them for putting on nationals then you are absolutely correct. If usat gets off their **s and decides that they need to do something now, then I would think they would be happy to get a good venue. At this point if a race director stepped up and said that they had a good course and all the permits/approvals needed, but was worried about recouping costs for a big race I would like to think that USAT would provide some sort of guaratees (I’m dreaming I know).
At this point I would be shocked if we have even a slapdash nationals. Quite a shame in a year when the worlds are in our own country.
Styrrell
If USAT wants to use an existing race, could they just do the Nationals on a Saturday and then the normal race would be on Sunday?
Everything would be set up allready for the local race anyway, they would just need permits for one extra day.
I would think that the race director could make a few extra bucks off of that one. He could even make it a three race weekend with a prologue on friday.
jaretj
At this point they should take what they can get. I think that they are dangerously close to having either no nationals or a lousy one.
Styrrell
“We are still hoping for a June or July date for the race.”
Merely “hoping” for a mid-summer date implies there is a possibility that the race date might *not *fall in June or July. These words are not very reassuring. I wonder what the other federations will think about the Americans when our final Worlds qualifier is held on September 25th (with Worlds on October 8-9).
“Once we find a city, we promise our members we will put on a first-class race.”
Oh really?..But I guess if Athens could pull off the Olympics at the last minute, then USAT has an outside chance of finding a solution to this mess.
I agree on using an existing race and figuring out something quickly! I am guessing numbers are going to be really low at the Nationals this year. Aside from the “we don’t give a crap about Nationals” message USAT is sending a lot of people are going to have other races scheduled for the same weekend. Especially when you are talking a June/July race. I know I already have races picked out for both those months and have been putting off signing up for them until I find out about Nationals.
While the election thing was a mess it didn’t immediately effect me, this on the other hand directly effects me and the races I want to do next year. I am very pissed off about the whole thing and think the board needs to take some immediate action on this.
The course may have contributed marginally to the decrease in field size, as did the generally unappealing nature of the city itself. I say marginally, because we had those conditions in spades in both St. Joseph (1999-2000) and Leon’s (1990-91-93). Much more important were that (a) you couldn’t fly there without a hassle, (b) you didn’t have to go there at all to make the team for 2005 worlds, and (c) it appeared as though half of New Orleans might have gone there to escape the hurricane.
I hope it isn’t around 6/12 - Escape from Alcatraz (I’m already signed up). USAT didn’t do a great job with planning ahead and solidifying the WC qualifiers for short course du’s either. It makes it tough to plan your training and schedule it around family life. My wife is already bugging me for commitments on summer vacations with our 3 little girls, and I feel pretty lame (and like a bad, selfish dad) saying “I can’t commit, since I’m not sure exactly when my important races will be.”
It’s only slightly mitigated by the fact that my family knows I do make sacrifices to minimize the conflict between training and family activities…although I do wish that my 5 year old twins would not scream out “daddy, he’s beating you, go faster” when the pacer on the Computrainer passes me while I watch the kids on a Saturday morning while they watch “Dora the Explorer.”
According to the USAT website Jack Weiss (board member) has an oly race scheduled for Dallas in June. To me this is a viable alternative for two reasons:
A) Boom were done. He agrees and we have a race. Can be announced tomorrow.
B) At least one person on the board wont be able to duck responsibility for a poorly organized race.
I can see it coming. A race is put together at the last minute and is a disaster. Guaranteed USAT will pass the buck to the local organizers. Just like their press announcement that the last city backed out. If nothing was signed the city wasn’t under any obligation. Not to mention that Tri is probably the only Olympic federation in the US that doesn’t know where thier national championships are going to be held at least a year ahead of time.
Styrrell
I think probably a really big reason for the fall in attendence in 2004 as compaired to 2003 is that a lot of athletes simply couldn’t make it to the race because of all the hurricanes that occurred during that time. If you remember, there was a hurricane threatening southern Louisiana the week before Nationals which eventually caused some major damage in Alabama and the Florida panhandle.
You hit the nail on the head for my reasons for skipping Shreveport 2004. I went in 2003, getting there was rough (3 flights and 8+ hours on the plane), I wasn’t thrilled with the course, and I knew I’d have another chance to make worlds this year. Plus my parents live in upstate NY so the chance that Nationals were going to be in Rochester was really attractive.
I think there is going to be a very poor turnout this year. As scienceman points out you have to sign up for the popular races early so if there is a conflict Nationals is going to lose out. The only positive part of this is that hopefully it will make qualifying for Hawaii easier!
If I were Jack, no freaking way. With the willingness of everyone to call conflict of interest, and for RDs to claim that he got nationals because he was on the board. As a matter of fact, that’s exactly why you suggest he should host it.
USAT didn’t do a great job with planning ahead and solidifying the WC qualifiers for short course du’s either.
Is there any word on short course duathlon nationals? I know a race near me said they were putting in a bid for this championship but I already see that they have kept the distance at 5/30/5 km for this year. Since this is not championship distance of 10/40/5, I assume they either did not put in the bid, withdrew the bid, or did not get the bid.
The Muncie, IN Family YMCA might be remotely interested. We have moved the 18th Pepsi Y-Tri to Aug. 20 and have an excellent venue, race committee and local security support. However, the ‘USAT’ owned part of this specific contract is not very conducive to local RD’s wanting to play ball with USAT. Also, with such a short time to market the event, USAT would have to assure some level of attendance or base fee to cover all options. And, I wouldn’t touch it without a two year deal.
As for a Sat/Sun format, I have done that for many years and am not fond of killing my team and myself for 7 days instead of 6- very tough on security, local residence and volunteers.
<< USAT didn’t do a great job with planning ahead and solidifying the WC qualifiers for short course du’s either.
Scienceman,
can you tell me what was/is wrong with the planning for duathlon qualifiers? These races were announced back in December. Even though Duathlon Nationals was just “officially” announced this week as being Mason Ohio in June, I confirmed it on www.duathlon.com last month as well.