The South American Fiasco

I really hope that I am running out of trips that could double as cheap horror flicks…After I returned home from “The Doha Disaster” (see previous blog entry), I figured that the worst was behind me, that it couldn’t possible get worse than that…well you guessed it, the week and a half journey to Brazil to hit the 3 Brazilian Grand Prix’s was nothing short of a test of my every last nerve. In fact, it was as a result of these 3 meets that I have decided to start my own website that will be dedicated to “rating” or scoring track and field competitions all over the world. Sure it will take massive amounts of time to get up and running, but the premise is to eventually be able to sell it to a 3rd party sometime over the next few years. This website will be accessed by athletes and managers alike that can log onto the site and rate the competitions that they were just in. These competitions will be rated on the following categories;
Travel, Accommodations, Food, Competition and Training Facilities, and last but not least Financial Arrangements.
These categories will be scored something like 1-5…1 being horrible, 2 below average, 3 average, 4 above average and 5 being great. After each category is ranked, the meet will receive a final grade, maybe something like a A+ to F or Failing with flying colors. I hope that this holds meeting directors and officials to higher standards when it comes to taking care of some of the most basic requirements, especially when the IAAF puts a “Grand Prix” status on a competition. I hope that athletes and managers alike will find this useful when picking meets at the beginning of the season and allows them to make well-informed decisions and what to expect from certain competitions. I will give you a few examples, there are a few meetings in Europe that are typically great places to compete with good venues, however, these few meets are notorious for not paying their financial agreements to the athletes (Ostrava and Tallinn). This information should be made known so that athletes and managers are aware of this before scheduling those competitions. There are also instances where competitions do a great job in every detail of running a world-class athletics competition, but lack proper competition facilities. This is also very helpful to know ahead of time.
I am now sitting on a train en route from Frankfurt to Berlin Germany. I am amazed at the differences in every aspect of life in Europe compared to South America, the organization, the cleanliness and the overall quality of life…I am competing in the Berlin Golden League Meeting on June 1. This will without a doubt be the largest competition of my career as the eyes of the entire athletics world are fixed upon 6 meetings a year, the Golden League Meetings…they take place in Berlin, Oslo, Paris, Rome, Brussels and Zurich. I am hoping with a good performance in Berlin, I will be able to get confirmations for Golden League meetings later this summer. These meetings are absolutely killer for World Ranking Points so it’s a great opportunity to jump a few people who I have been behind all year. The new World Rankings were posted just as I left Brazil, I have now cracked the elusive “top 10” list and am sitting comfortably atop the World Athletic Tour Standings with an almost 30 point lead…however that lead will diminish extremely quickly and will likely disappear all together as the Scandinavian guys bring their A games this summer.
My stop is coming up next, gotta pack my stuff and hit the next connection to Berlin. Catch yall later! M++