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July 2015 Track and Field Writers of President’s Message America Gathering at the Heinonens’ (Founded June 7, 1973) PRESIDENT Longtime members Tom and Janet Heinonen graciously opened their home to us Jack Pfeifer, 6129 N. Lovely St., Portland, OR for a TAFWA social event on Sunday morning June 28, the final day of the USATF 97203. Office/home: 917- meet in Eugene. Their home is just a few blocks from Hayward Field. 579-5392. Email: [email protected] Thanks to the organizing efforts of Kim Spir, Dave Johnson and Tom Casacky, VICE PRESIDENT Doug Binder. Email: everyone had a good get-together of breakfast and conversation. That included [email protected]. reminiscing about our old friend Jim Dunaway, who passed away earlier this year. Phone: 503-913-4191. TREASURER Because of a personal conflict, your president was not able to attend. My apolo- Tom Casacky, P.O. Box 4288, Napa, CA 94558. gies. Phone: 818-321-3234. Email: [email protected] We hope to continue this tradition of small social events at members’ homes in SECRETARY/ AWARDS CHAIR Contents Don Kopriva, 5327 New- port Drive, Lisle IL 60532. P. 1 President’s Message Home: 630-960-3049. P. 3 TAFWA/FAST Social in Eugene Cell: 630-712-2710. Email: donkopriva777@ P. 5 FAST Award to Sieg Lindstrom aol.com P. 8 Lananna’s Summer Series for 2016 NEWSLETTER EDITOR P. 11 Race Volunteers’ Lawsuit Goes Forward Kim Spir, University of P. 14 Run Gum - Support Elite Athletes like Nick Symmonds Portland, 5000 N. Willamette Blvd., P. 16 Bert Used Private Firm For Testing? Portland, OR 97203. P. 19 Molly Huddle’s Blog Work: 503-943-7314. Email: kim.spir@gmail. P. 20 NIKE’s corporate “heart” com P. 24 Keith Conning - Athletics for a Better World FAST P. 26 An Indifferent Toronto and the Pan Am Games Dave Johnson. Email: P. 29 Rod Dixon vs. Pre? [email protected] Phone: 215-898-6145. P. 33 Pan Am Games’ TO2015 Organizing Committee Threatens to Sue If You Link to the Website WEBMASTER Michael McLaughlin. P. 35 The RunnerSpace.com Story - Ross Krempley Email: supamac@comcast. P. 38 Partial Fixtures List net. Phone: 815-529- 8454. Photo: Steve Sutton, adidas International NYC future years including Portland, Oregon during the World Indoors in 2016. FAST Annual By now, if you are a paid-up member for 2015, you should have received your FAST annual either in person in Eugene or by post. If not, please contact Dave Johnson, who is handling this year’s mailing. Additional copies are available for $20. For next year, the 2016 Olympic season, we are in discussion with our sponsors and editors to try to have the Annual ready in time for the 2016 USA and World Indoor meets, which will be held in Port- land in March. That would be a novelty, eh? We would also consider having additional indoors material, appropriate to the big indoor champs. Championships And now we look ahead to the biggest 13 months of our sport – next month’s World Championships in Beijing, the Word Indoor in Portland, the Olympic Trials in Eugene a year from now, and the first-ever Olympic Games in South America, in Rio de Janeiro in the summer of 2016. Eugene Because so many of our most important meets now take place in Eugene, Ore. – the NCAA every year, a third straight Olympic Trials, USA Nationals, Prefontaine – we are all accustomed to Hayward Field, Franklin Boulevard, TrackTown Pizza, the Valley River Inn, the Hilton, Marche, McMenamin’s and so forth. Logistical issues come up every year. Some things seem to get better, some seem to slide back. If there were things that particularly concerned you, as a member of the working press, this past season, please pass along your concerns to me and be as specific as possible. One new and troubling issue appears to be the cost of housing in Eugene, a community that typically has provided affordable accommodations. No longer, as event-specific pricing has now driven motel rooms above $300 a night. We hope to address this in the off-season. Parking near Hayward Field also remains an issue, and we again plan to look at this one in the off-sea- son. How much, for example, would you be willing to pay for a reserved parking space, two blocks from Hayward Field, per day? $25? Photographer restrictions. We hear things went well this year at Pre, not so great at NCAA. How did it go for you? Suggestions? Wi-fi. Did it work well in the tent this year? If you had your own cable, internet connectivity in the stadium was excellent. I can attest to this personally. Ethernet is the way to go at Hayward Field. You can purchase an Ethernet cable and, where needed, a laptop adapter, at the university book store just off-campus. /JP/ TAFWA Newsletter - Page 2 - July 2015 TAFWA/FAST Social ---- FAST Award Presentation Upper left: Dave Johnson Jack Shepard, Rick Russell, Keith Con- ning, Bob Jarvis. Upper right: Art Morgan, Nancy Nelson. Lower left: Tom Casacky, Bob Jarvis, Keith Conning, Art Morgan, Nancy Nelson. Middle right: Rick Russell, David Monti, Chris Lotsbom. Lower right: Copper TAFWA Newsletter - Page 3 - July 2015 TAFWA Newsletter - Page 4 - July 2015 The 2015 FAST Award was presented to Sieg Lindstrom (‘who me??”) in the Media Tribune during the USATF Championships at Hayward Field Sunday, June 28, 2015. TAFWA Newsletter - Page 5 - July 2015 TAFWA Newsletter - Page 6 - July 2015 TAFWA Newsletter - Page 7 - July 2015 http://portlandtribune.com/pt/12-sports/265804-138736-lanannas-summer-series-idea- would-keep-athletes-from-running-to-europe Lananna’s summer series idea would keep athletes from running to Europe Created on Saturday, 04 July 2015 01:18 | Written by Kerry Eggers Earlier articles: http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2015/06/25/new-circuit-planned-boost-track-and-field-us TrackTown USA head aims to help competitors earn living, grow sport ________________________________________ EUGENE — A year ago, Atlanta-based sports agent Paul Doyle initiated a U.S. track and field team competition called the American Track League that didn’t gain a lot of traction. Now Vin Lananna hopes to put together a similar enterprise called the TrackTown Summer Series that will culminate with a season-ending championship meet at Hayward Field next summer. The league is scheduled to begin shortly after the 2016 Olympic Trials July 1-10 at Eugene. Lananna, president of the TrackTown USA organization that promotes the sport and stages major events, says he has reached out to representatives of 12 cities “in major media markets” to serve as sites for teams. “I can’t provide details, but Portland is one of those cities, for sure,” Lananna says. Other West Coast cities believed to be involved in negotiations for a team include Seattle, San Francisco and Sacramento, Calif. Lananna’s idea is to provide competitive domestic meets for U.S. athletes after the USTAF national championships in late June and leading up to the World Championships or Olympic Games in late summer. “We have felt for a long time we need to have opportunities in this country during the summer for our high-end athletes as they peak for the World Championships, Olympic Games or Diamond League events,” Lananna says. Eugene played host to a high-performance professional meet last summer “with the full intention of shifting the paradigm of everybody running out of town after the U.S. championships or Olympic Trials and going to Europe,” he says. Lananna says he has received “good response” from reps of four cities thus far, plus “great response from the athletes and great response from the investors. This is one of the first times when any initiative has started with having the financial background, then developing the outcome with the rest of the idea.” There will be teams representing cities and team scores kept in dual meets. There will be an athlete draft con- ducted to balance the talent pool. TAFWA Newsletter - Page 8 - July 2015 “We feel we’ll (field) 200 athletes,” Lananna says. “Our objective is to provide opportunities for U.S. athletes. We may have some international athletes, too, but at a lower percentage.” Not every event will be included in every meet, which Lananna says will take 90 minutes to complete. He says the championship meet in Eugene will take one hour and 45 minutes. “The meets will be scored, and we’ll engage the team concept similar to the way the NCAA Championships are set up,” Lananna says. Athletes will be “financially compensated for participating,” he says. But those athletes will be able to continue with their shoe and apparel endorsement deals and will wear their normal uniforms during meets. “They’ll continue to wear whatever they currently wear,” he says. Lananna hopes to incorporate road racing in the meets, with the race to end at the finish line inside the stadi- um. TrackTown USA — which will stage the 2016 World Indoor Championships in Portland and the 2021 World Outdoor Championships in Eugene — will help operate each of the meets. Lananna says he is in negotiations with a “major television network” for broadcast rights. The investors, Lananna says, “will either coach the team themselves or hire somebody.” “We’ll pit one city’s team against another’s,” Lananna says. “Right now, we anticipate having at least four (dual meets), and there will be a national championship held at Hayward Field. “The objective is a buildup to the 2021 World Championships. It’s my goal to create stars of our sport (to be- come) household names as we get ready to host the 2021 World Championships.” Attendance at the dual “regional” meets, Lananna says, “won’t be important at all.