It's all about the competition!
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atf newswire-The Importance of the World Championships written and edited by the staff of AT&F Sponsored by http://www.newbalance.com

******* August 5, 2005

As I begin my trip to Helsinki, Finland, I wanted all of us to consider the impact of the world championships on our sport. The world championships are in their tenth version in 2005, and Helsinki, Finland gave them their fantastic start, and now, the javelin mad Finns get to do it again!

The World Champs in Helsinki will have 32 medalists from the Athens Olympics, plus athletes from over 200 countries, making it the single largest sports championships in the world.

This is a real world championships, not like our Super Bowl or World Series. Athletes from countries like Senegal, who won their first medal in Paris in 2003, will be competing against countries with much longer sports traditions. The beauty of our sport is that the athlete is only as good as their last race.

How would you react, if, besides being in a new country, you went to the starting line, and heard 40,000 screaming fans? Then, you look up and see those fans- gulp! A huge part of the sport is preparing an athlete to deal with new situations, and the only way one can do that is to take them to the big races.

Where does athletics rank in the world sport firmament? Probably third or fourth most popular sport in the world. And contrary to what our friends in Europe think, when they can show us 50 junior meets where the average crowd is 6,000 and crowds at the Texas state meet are 40,000 over three days, then they will get a gander of how strong the grass roots of our sport is in this country!

The problem in the U.S. for track and field is that we have everything from professional walleye fishing to logrolling showing up on ESPN2. The webcast and PAX and Comcast coverage are more coverage than we have had, in terms of hours, but what happened to ESPN and ESPN2?

Don't get me wrong, webcasting, in two years, will be the way for us to see any and every European track meet, and with a good cable modem, you are rocking. Cable TV has not got a clue of what they are up against--the niche TV network, much like how we do regional running magazines-a TV network just for track geeks. That is why you need to spend your $4.95 and watch the Worlds on www.wcsn.com. You will get a chance to see and hear what our friends in Europe get to see of a real track meet!

We will be posting stories all weekend long, so do not miss a thing. I do want to give you a hint about one of the upsets that we may be writing about--how many good milers do you know that could make the finals of the World Champs in 05? As many as six? Think about it.

****** atf newswire was first emailed in Atlanta during the 1996 Olympic Trials, and has been published around major events ever since. We have published an average of 40 issues a year for the past seven years. We will publish at least once a day from August 04-August 15. For more in depth coverage, please check out http://www.american-trackandfield.com for columns by Bob Ramzak, Mary Nicole Nazzaro and James Dunaway, plus photos from Victah Sailer and PhotoRun.

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Coverage will start from Helsinki on August 5. Watch www.american- trackandfield.com and www.runningnetwork.com for daily updates. atf newswire is sponsored by New Balance Athletic Shoes, Inc. which can be found at http://www.newbalance.com on the web.

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atf newswire, copyright 2005 by shooting star media, inc. a proud member of the Running Network, LLC

http:://www.runningnetwork.com ****** Larry Eder President-Running Network, LLC. http://www.runningnetwork.com Group Publisher-Shooting Star Media, Inc. http://www.shootingstarmediainc.com 920.568.8112, Fax, 920.563.7298 mobile, 608.239.3785

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