Should the Juvenile indoor Champs be run in Magherafelt?

longjump67

Feel that the facilities at the Meadowbank arena could run the individual programme over 1 weekend rather than the 2 weekends it currently takes.

With 2 long jump pits, 2 shot putt circles & 2 high jump beds all in action while the track events are being run, it saves so much time & money.

What do you think?

RoyMcC

Maybe it comes down to cost of hire, geographical difficulties for those down the country or possibly a wish to support Nenagh. There's no doubting where the Dublin-based athletes would rather go.

I've heard it said more than once about Nenagh that if you want to keep warm there you've got to go outside! Though it wasn't too bad on my single visit there.

notsofast

I think the only thing that Magherafelt has going for it is it's size. It can easily accomodate a big crowd and lots of simultaneous events as you point out. It did finish up very early on Sun, not sure about Sat so more could be packed into the agenda and reduce the number of days.

However, there are reasons why Meadowbanks is NOT suitable. (and personally, I think these outweigh the positives).

- geographical location
- surface. Heard complaints about the long jump run up. It will be interesting to see official results and see of there were any CBP's set in the track events. High jump performances weren't that great either.
- atmosphere. It was dead, with people spread right around the arena.

Presumably it the Athlone arena is finished, the championships will be held there next year ????

longjump67

notsofast wrote: »

I think the only thing that Magherafelt has going for it is it's size. It can easily accomodate a big crowd and lots of simultaneous events as you point out. It did finish up very early on Sun, not sure about Sat so more could be packed into the agenda and reduce the number of days.

well Saturday was run off before 4pm & field events finnished by 2pm, easily could have run the remaining individual events over both days.

However, there are reasons why Meadowbanks is NOT suitable. (and personally, I think these outweigh the positives).

- geographical location


well as someone who has for the last 20+ years made the 5 - 5 1/2 hour journey (one way) down to nenagh, find this reason pointless. When facing maybe 1 weekend away compared with 2, must be less exspenive on already hard-up parents.

- surface. Heard complaints about the long jump run up. It will be interesting to see official results and see of there were any CBP's set in the track events. High jump performances weren't that great either.


Yes the surface is slower for sprints, but middle distance races seem to be on a par with Nenagh.

- atmosphere. It was dead, with people spread right around the arena.

Good atmosphere on Saturday much much less on Sunday due to smaller programme of events.

Presumably it the Athlone arena is finished, the championships will be held there next year ????


If it is finnished by next year, have no problem with travelling down to Athlone. My point being that the individual programme could be run in 1 weekend, which must make it cost-effective IMHO.

notsofast

longjump67 wrote: »

well as someone who has for the last 20+ years made the 5 - 5 1/2 hour journey (one way) down to nenagh, find this reason pointless

If it is finnished by next year, have no problem with travelling down to Athlone. My point being that the individual programme could be run in 1 weekend, which must make it cost-effective IMHO.

Pointless? We'd all love the have the major champs in our backyard. Having just consulted a map of Ireland, I don't think there is a more central town than Athlone so here's hoping it gets done and is to a proper standard. Can't see AAI completely dropping Nenagh though. We'd all miss it it if we weren't making at least one trip a year there. (The McDonalds drive-thru in Roscrea would also surely go out of business ).

You're probably right that a more condensed program could be squeezed into 2 days, starting earlier and going on longer.

longjump67

notsofast wrote: »

You're probably right that a more condensed program could be squeezed into 2 days, starting earlier and going on longer.

The programme could be condensed to fit 2 days in Maghreafelt, but wouldnt work in the 200m banked track, as the 60m & 60m hurldes would delay high jumps & shots.:( The programme would still run for 3 days you see.

notsofast

This is presentation on the new indoor facility at Athlone. It says "proposed" but hopefully this is what is being built

http://www.ait.ie/media/athloneit/presentations/AIT-Indoor-sports-facility-presentation.ppt

a_non_a_mouse

I feel the pain of the long journeys.
Nenagh 3 hours for me, Magherafelt over 6
but simple logistics should determine that the best location is a central one.
I appreciate that may mean a long trip for some people but most people would have a short trip.

And with regard shortening the All-Irelands to 2/3 days.
While it would probably be appreciated for most of the parents/coaches, don't forget a days gate receipts is probably more that the cost of the rental for the day.
Less days, is probably less money for AAI.

Similar story with the outdoor all-irelands.
Didn't they used to be 4 days...then they took out the younger ages to a separate day but its still 4 days for the u12-u19. So in effects its now 5 days for juvenile all-irelands.
I'm sure gate receipts have an impact..

ChickenTikka

longjump67 wrote: »

notsofast wrote: »

well as someone who has for the last 20+ years made the 5 - 5 1/2 hour journey (one way) down to nenagh, find this reason pointless. When facing maybe 1 weekend away compared with 2, must be less exspenive on already hard-up parents.

I have to agree that its not suitable geographically. I live reasonably centrally in the country but yet its a 4 hour drive to Magherafelt. If you're in Cork or Kerry, its probably closer to a 7 hour drive. I think this idea of bringing these events to 1 end of the country or the other is crazy. So am looking forward to Athlone too.

But I agree with you that the program could be organised better to reduce the amount of time needed to be there. There is potential to combine all the younger age groups into one weekend and all the older age groups into another. I think the current structure/breakdown facilitates officials rather than spectators and participants. Most families will have only 1 family member participating and therefore 1 weekend would suffice. There is no overriding reason in my opinion for e.g. all hurdles events to be on the same day.

A central venue would mean most don't have to do overnights. This would increase the attractiveness of the sport as it makes it cheaper to be involved at a high level. And it would also facilitate exam students. Last weekend, if you had an overnight stay, thats 100 euro for a parent and child, possibly another 50 or 60 for fuel, maybe 20 or 30 for food, a tenner in at the complex (or 20 if both parents happened to travel) (a tenner admission too for our volunteer coaches who give countless hours of their time for free to facilitate AAI to collect tenners at the gate). It quickly mounts up to over 200 euro for 1 athlete to participate in the national finals.

A couple of other comments.

Participation
If you compare the participation rate and standard in Magherafelt vs Nenagh, I bet its lower.

Long jump
From a spectator and coaches perspective, the location of the long jumps is terrible - too far away to see the break board or to have any visual communication with your athlete. And the elevated runway is very different to a tartan runway that athletes are used to.

Hard surface
Whats under the green carpet? Its rock hard and as far as I could see from the piece outside the wire, its solid concrete. Not very suitable, particularly for high jump.

300m track
2 years ago all of the times set in the 4x200 relays counted as Championship Best Performances. This in my opinion is very unfair. You have 8 tighter bends to run in an 800 race on a 200m track but only 5 wider bends to run on a 300m track. Its surprising that IAAF don't have a guideline for this. Same would be true for 1500m times - 5 laps in Magherfelt vs 7.5 in Nenagh.

I know Nenagh has its problems, but Magherafelt doesn't solve them. Hopefully Athlone will!

notsofast

http://www.westmeathindependent.ie/news/roundup/articles/2011/07/27/4005761-work-to-begin-on-115m-sports-arena-in-ait/print

I was searching to see if I could find an update on the indoor arena at Athlone and found this article. Says that expected completion date is March 2012 for phase 1.

notsofast

Some indoor fixtures for 2012 now on AAI website

11/12 Feb - Woodie’s DIY AAI Senior Indoor Championships in......Belfast

24/25 Mar & 31Mar/1 Apr Woodie’s DIY AAI Juvenile Indoor Championships
in ..... Nenagh

Rocket Science

Athlone will be finished by about May 2012 so will be up and running easily for indoor 2013. It will be full international standard and will lack nothing. It will be a credit to the vision of the people behind it as completely funded by Athlone IT. Well done to them. I assume AI will hold all national championships there. A central venue, it will be a huge boost to Irish athletics. In the meantime, in recessionary times I feel that AI should hold all competitions in a central venue which would allow the majority of people to make the event without incurring accommodation costs.