Who watches the watchers?⏱

Lap 105: Sponsored by New Balance

The CITIUS MAG team is heading back to The TRACK at New Balance next week! The 2023 New Balance Nationals Indoors will be held March 9-12. This is not just a competition. It’s a celebration of excellence in high school track and field.

Don’t miss the top prep athletes from around the country showcasing their talent, hard work, and dedication in front of some of the best athletes in the world. Heather MacLean, Trayvon Bromell, Emma Coburn, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, and more New Balance professionals will be in the house to witness greatness from Rocky Hansen, Sadie Engelhardt, Shawnti Jackson, Nyckoles Harbor, Aaron Sahlman, Avery Lewis, and so many more rising stars.

It would not be the national meet without the best athletes in the country, and New Balance Nationals Indoors has them!

European Indoor Championships 🇪🇺

It’s been said that the center of the sport is in Europe, and that’s probably accurate from a popularity standpoint. (If that entire continent had a dual meet vs. the NCAA, it’d be a competitive match-up.) But with rivalries stemming from border disputes following the fall of the Holy Roman Empire, the stakes feel a touch higher for this championship than one based on who was awarded a partial scholarship to compete for which school..

Then there’s the star factor. Jakob Ingebrigtsen effortlessly added two more titles to his name for an incredible eleven career championships And while there’s a part of me that wonders “don’t you have enough of these trophies by now?” an even bigger part of me is wowed that a country of 5.4 million ran, hurdled, and vaulted away from the meet with the most gold medals. Surely that will answer any doubts about whether double threshold sessions are also beneficial for 400m runners and pole vaulters.

But even if you’re a college athlete or NCAA athletics fan still seething at being slighted two paragraphs ago, there are a few great reasons to love the European Champs. First off, the arena in Istanbul has a number of cats living inside of it and apparently the organizers refused to temporarily relocate them, even for a few days. There were just cats walking around, and the possibility that one might wander into the path of an athlete enhanced the potential for drama. But perhaps more importantly, it was so damn easy to watch the whole meet.

Every race was streamed free with fantastic commentary on AllAthletics[dot]tv. Miss something? Replays were being posted instantly. The only downside is that the European Athletics website requires making an account to see results. But I digress, if this apparent push by World Athletics to make track and field popular in the United States is a real thing, then make it that easy to watch every race, every time. An app would be nice – if RedBull has one so we can watch every dude who has ever jumped off a cliff do so with the click of a button then so should athletics.

This is not a rant against streaming platforms charging a fee to watch high school invitationals, college last chance meets, or smaller professional races. As part of a niche audience, I have no problem with fees to watch something that would otherwise be unviewable. But when there is a made-for-TV event that aims to showcase the very best talent in the world, then it should be in the long-term interest of stakeholders to make that as accessible as possible.

But that’s not what I was intending to write about. This is…

These are my top 7 moments from the European Championships:

1. World Record – Nafi Thiam, the double Olympic champion from Belgium, set a new pentathlon world record with a score of 5055 points, and in the process set new personal bests in the shot put, hurdles, and 800m. The previous mark of 5013 was set in the same building by Nataliya Dobrynska of Ukraine in 2012. Thiam’s victory comes two weeks after Anna Hall narrowly missed breaking the record at the US Championships. With two additional events and five months to train, what does the gap between the pair look like come outdoors?

2. That first 200 – For some perspective, 91 men have broken 20 seconds ever in the 200m, but only one has ever done it under a roof. Well, Karsten Warholm ran an absolutely bonkers first lap of 20.84 on his way to barely holding on to the lead to win the 400m in 45.35. It was a suicidal pace, and one that Michael Johnson reckons may have cost him the world record. But that’s why we love watching the Norwegian run because he wasn’t doing that math, he was just sprinting.

3. Why so many guys? – Despite there being a prelim, a semi-final, and only six lanes on the track, the 800m final had eight guys in it. (The women did too, but Keely Hodgkinson made that irrelevant.) Likewise, the 1500 had 12 athletes, and the 3000m had 15 – only one dude was eliminated from the second heat during qualifications. Although it is nonsensical and downright dangerous, the men’s 800m brought all the chaotic energy as the bruisers somehow managed to stay on their feet. Spain’s Adrián Ben hung out in the back before making a huge move going into the bell and then performed a perfectly timed dip at the line to win it. This is the first major medal for the 24-year-old who finished 5th at the Tokyo Olympics and was only 4th at this year’s Spanish Indoor Championships.

4. Which Italian won the 60? – Well, the Italian champion won, but not the guy who won the Olympics. Samuele Ceccarelli made what at the time seemed like a huge upset a couple of weeks ago in defeating Marcell Jacobs seem more like a reasonable outcome. His best time at the start of the season was 6.72. In the semi-finals he ran 6.47 and then held off Jacobs in the final. Ciccarelli’s personal best in the 100m is an astonishingly un-eye-popping 10.45 from last year, which would have been good enough for the 221st fastest time in the NCAA in 2022. Now he is the fastest starter in Europe. He wasn’t even on the Olympic winning Italian 4 x 100, though his odds of making the squad next time are starting to look good.

5. Welcome to the club! – The reaction by Jazmin Sawyers hearing that she leaped 7.00m in the long jump to win the gold medal and set the British indoor record is my new core memory. Getting deeper into the pit than anyone else this year is one accomplishment, but getting farther out than the reigning Olympic champion and the World Indoor Champion on the one day it matters most is what makes this first global gold so special.

6. Germany goes 1-2 – It’s not a surprise that Deutschland took top honors in the women’s 3000m but with 200m remaining, Konstanze Klosterhalfen had company tracking her every step. Countrywoman Hanna Klein was still there and with life left in her legs, the 14:51 5000m runner earned the biggest win of her career, running a personal best of 8:35.87. Credit to Koko, who was certainly the favorite, for being so thrilled that she and her teammate could sweep that top two spots.

7. Gold for Turkey – Root, root, root for the home team! The hosts were able to come away with a single medal thanks to the triple jumping abilities and national record of 14.31m by Tuğba Danismaz. It has only been one month since the tragic earthquake that killed over 46,000 Turkish people occurred, and with so much damage and loss, this moment gave the country something to smile about if even for a moment.

Watches in Track and Field ⌚️

You could not time it better!

Perfectly overlapping with Nafi Thiam’s record-setting performance came the horological announcement that her sponsor Richard Mille had released their first women’s sports watch, the RM 07-04 Automatic Sport. I do not expect she had to pay the full retail price ($185,000, for those with a couple hundred grand burning a hole in their pocket reading at home) for the watermelon-colored timepiece on her wrist.

You may vaguely recall that Wayde Van Niekerk received a lot of attention for breaking the 400m record at the 2016 Olympics while wearing an equally ugly piece. Given that track generally is a time-focused pursuit, this sort of pairing makes sense.

Many stars such as Noah Lyles, Keely Hodgkinson, Mondo Duplantis, and Yulimar Rojas represent Omega, the official sponsor of the Diamond League. When Femke Bol broke the 400m world record this season, she was donning a $50,000 Aqua Terra.

During the Commonwealth Games, Longines entered the arena on the wrists of Josh Kerr and Peter Bol. And Hublot, which is controversial in some enthusiast circles, supports Usain Bolt, Dina Asher-Smith, and Mujinga Kambundji.

Seiko, the Japanese watch company best known for the creation of the first quartz watch, is in the middle of a ten-year partnership with World Athletics. They do not sponsor Devon Allen.

There isn’t much in-the-moment-utility for athletes to wear super expensive watches in competition. By comparison, a few hundred dollars for a basic GPS watch grants its wearer the ability to upload a run to Strava to dunk on your friends – that feels more reasonable.

But these partnerships boil down to one thing. When those less familiar with our world ask, ‘so how does professional track & field work?’ my elevator explanation has always been that athletes are moving billboards.

For a premium luxury product like a high-end watch, the association with the best in the world positions the brand as aspirational. Just as we all dream of one day being able to afford a Patek Philippe Perpetual Calendar Chronograph 5270P-001 – or finding one at a garage sale – the performances of Olympic champions are placed on a pedestal.

Sponsoring amazing feats is how Rolex separated itself from the competition and became the status symbol that it is today. In 1928, when Mercedes Gleitze swam across the English channel, she brought one with her. Sir Malcolm Campbell had one on his wrist when he broke the land speed record in 1935, and Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier with a Rolex.

The history of watches and racing is closely tied, albeit generally with racing cars. As much as every track fan would like to mimic F1 for its Netflix series, it might be worth following suit in the sponsorship category instead, and rebranding ourselves as a luxury sport. In nature, track and field is known for its inclusivity. (Every reject who failed to make his middle school basketball team now has a newsletter centered on running, after all.)

Although this goes against my suggestion to start handing tickets out to fill the stadium in order to entice sponsors, what if we do the exact opposite? All I know is we can’t keep doing what we are doing. From now on, if you want to watch Jakob Ingebrigtsen chase a world record it is going to cost an arm and a leg. Comically large hats with flowers are required! And we can start by putting NCAAs behind a paywall – it’ll only cost you a Casio.

Do you want to watch NCAAs? 📺

That will be $10 – except for DII and DIII fans. Those division’s championships are still free on NCAA[dot]com.

Unfortunately, after many years of the NCAA Indoor Championships being aired on ESPN, the meet’s broadcast has been moved behind a paywall and will be streamed via ESPN+. As you can imagine, people are outraged. It is not so much that they don’t have this type of money, it’s more that to follow the sport it now costs $58/month across four platforms to do so. (Alternatively, watching the meet via the theater of the mind by reading this newsletter remains free.)

So what happened? The NCAA sold the broadcasting rights for 29 of its championships to ESPN for $34 million per year as part of a contract that goes through 2024. This is a particularly bad deal when you consider that women’s basketball alone is worth in the ballpark of $100 million.

It’s not a great trend to see meets that were previously included in your parents’ your TV package be put behind a gate. Especially as we have been working so hard on Twitter being vocal about our displeasure about these sorts of things! Though if Leicester City could go from relegation to English Premier League champions in two years, then maybe so can we?

This was ultimately a decision by ESPN, and therefore if we want to win back the slot, then maybe it is time we take a good hard look at the schedule. Unlike professional running, which at least occasionally considers that track and field is a spectator sport, the NCAA doesn’t prioritize the spectating public in its scheduling. Sure, I would probably already be planning on spending most of my Friday and Saturday watching track in some capacity online, but how many other would-be viewers are prepared to take such a plunge?

If there is enough fury at the hotel bar amongst coaches who are drinking their stress away in Albuquerque that they choose to do something actionable, then it starts with advocating for a TV-friendly event format in the future.

UK Athletics becomes a luxury brand 🇬🇧

The UK Athletics chief executive said that he wants to be more ‘ruthless’ when selecting teams for global championships. Maybe whichever therapist told him that he needs to start focusing on visualizing success before it can be achieved is the real individual to blame?

With the pool of talent constantly getting deeper and the Olympic standards getting faster, no athlete is ‘making up the numbers’ to qualify – okay, maybe within the world ranking system that’s a little bit doable.

But when it comes to qualifying for Budapest, UK athletes must achieve the world standards in the 200/400/400H/800/1500/5000. If selected by ranking in another event, then they must also be under the British standard, which is not significantly different from the world one.

This is one of many problems with the world ranking system – many countries do not respect it as an earned berth. That presents one hell of a problem when 50% of all participants are expected to qualify via the rankings. World Athletics needs to come down hard on federations that pull this stunt as it completely undermines the methodology.

My suggestion is simple: If UKA chooses not to send an athlete that rightfully qualifies for a global championship, then World Athletics issues a fine. That money can be used to fund the athlete’s trip for them to compete as an individual without a national allegiance.

In 2022, Team GB earned seven medals, which was the fourth most among nations. The gold-to-bronze ratio probably wasn’t what UKA hoped for, but it’s not like there is some drastic problem that needs a major overhaul. At the Tokyo Olympics, the sun set on the British Empire with five medals. While that one day at the London Olympics was memorable, that sort of thing doesn’t happen very often, which is why it is still referred to as Super Saturday. (Pretty strong nickname considering that Jesus dying for our sins was only thought to be a Good Friday.)

Other countries have tried this methodology; ask New Zealand or Canada how it worked out. The key to developing talent is investing in the youth. It takes many athletes time to become acquainted with the international stage and there are stages to progress through. Look at Neil Gourley: At European Indoors in 2019 he was booted in the first round, then in 2021 he got last in the final, and in 2023 the Scot grabbed a silver medal.

This is an ongoing problem with federations in distributing funding to athletes. Do you reward athletes who are currently competing well? Those are the individuals who likely receive the least benefit from an additional $40,000. They’re already sponsored, training full-time, and have the opportunity to travel to meets or camps.

Comparatively, there’s a significant shift in lifestyle and training approach for an unsponsored athlete if they were to receive the same amount of money. That might be the difference between working 40 hours a week and not, which in turn might be what finally transforms an international qualifier into a medal threat. But how do you determine the best way to support those athletes? Well, it’s definitely not by leaving them at home for the Games they rightfully qualify for. Don’t be surprised when athletes switch allegiances to compete for countries that believe in their abilities.

The Tokyo Marathon 🇯🇵

With less than two miles to go at the Tokyo Marathon, there were so many men together that it was hard to believe that… well, there were only two miles to go. The race came down to a final sprint, and a wild one at that, as Ethiopia’s Deso Gelmisa weaved in and out to hold off Mohamed Esa in a time of 2:05:22. (Ultimately, nineteen(!) would dip below the 2:09:40 marathon mark, which serves as the World Championship qualifying standard.)

If this was a high school meet in Maryland, then perhaps the officials would have given it a second look. (To be disqualified at the finish of a World Marathon Major then you’d probably need to pile drive someone across the timing mat.) This wasn’t a personal best for Gelmisa. In fact, he’s run faster on four occasions, which is pretty good for a 25-year-old. But this victory here usurps his previous win in Paris as the biggest of his career.

However, the athlete that likely received the most attention in North Americans Twitter feeds is Cam Levins, whose fifth-place finish in 2:05:36 set a new Canadian and continental record. I am sure a few years ago that many fans and shoe companies would have written him off thinking that his notoriously high mileage approach – we’re talking regularly running upwards of 190 miles per week over the last decade-plus – would have decimated his legs. But we are witnessing a renaissance from the Southern Utah grad, and it’s been a joy to watch. Let’s quickly put the roller coaster of Levins’ career into a few bullet points – buckle up:

• 4:18 miler out of high school in 2007

• Runs 3:59 for the mile in 2010

• Finishes 7th in 13:40 at NCAAs in the 5000m in 2011

• Runs 13:18/27:27 before becoming the NCAA champion at 5000m and 1000m in 2012, and then that summer qualifies for the London Olympics

• Becomes a cult hero after Flotrack features him in a DRIVEN series

• Joins Nike’s Oregon Project in 2013 and between then and 2015 sets personal bests of 3:36 for 1500m, 3:54 for the mille, 8:14 for 2 mile, 13:15 for 5000m and 27:07 for 10000m

• Takes a step back in 2016 running a best result of 13:26 for 5000m

• Struggles in 2017 and does not break 14 minutes – leaves the Oregon Project

• Signs with HOKA and runs 1:02:15 for the half and a 2:09:25 debut marathon

• Struggles in 2019 running 65 minutes for half and 2:15 in the full

• In 2020 it was a DNF in London and then a 2:12:15 at the Marathon Project

• Runs 2:10:14 to win Fürstenfeld in Austria, then runs 2:28 at the Olympics

• Competing without a sponsor at the 2022 World Championships, finishes 4th in a personal best of 2:07:09

• Signs with ASICS, wins the Vancouver Half in 1:00:18 and then runs a North American record of 2:05:36 in Tokyo

Can’t wait to see what happens next!

On the women’s side, Rosemary Wanjiru ran the sixth-fastest time ever in 2:16:36 to set a new course record. Second-place finisher, Tsehay Gemechu (2:16:56) is now eighth on the descending order list, yet for both athletes, this was the second marathon of their careers! Although Wanjiru represents Kenya, Tokyo would be considered a home marathon for her as she has lived in Japan since 2012.

Also, in her first marathon as an American, Betsy Saina ran 2:21:40. The 34-year-old mother, who was a three-time NCAA Champion while at Iowa State will be a force to be reckoned with come the Trials in Orlando.

The TEN 🔟

If you paid your $5.99 to Sound Running to watch The TEN on pay-per-view, then you should feel good knowing that four of those dollars goes towards the prize money. But if you stayed up until 1:30 AM on the east coast and had to wake up for an 18-mile long run the next day, then your body might have been feeling slightly less thrilled with that decision.

The action on the track was certainly worth the price of admission as world class pacer Ollie Hoare dragged the field through the first half in 13:37. When he stepped off, it was OAC teammate Joe Klecker who started trading punches with the clock as Woody Kincaid was the only other soul that mustered the fight to stay with him.

After politely declining the invitation to help with the pacing, Kincaid tripped up Klecker a bit with 900m to go, which was the subject of some frustration afterward. But in Minnesota they don’t make runners, they make athletes and Klecker stayed on his feet. They would both end up running under the World Championship qualifying standard of 27:10.Woody closed in 55 seconds to win in 27:06, with Joe hot on his heels in 27:07.

If you were looking around wondering, “Grant Fisher — where is he? I don’t know. I don’t know.” Then know that his American Record of 26:33 from last spring still counts — to make three American men with the standard, plus Sean McGorty, who’s eligible via ranking.

The women’s race was billed as an American Record attempt for Alicia Monson, whose incredible indoor season left no questions as to whether or not she was ready to tackle it. The time to beat was Molly Huddle’s 30:13.17 from the 2016 Olympics, a mark just narrowly missed by Elise Cranny last year when she ran 30:14.66.

Never afraid to be the one pushing the pace, Monson did what she does best, and after the first 5000m split of 15:08 thanks to the help of Josette Norris, she continued to wind it up. But the one unflappable silhouette behind her was Scotland’s Eilish McColgan, who would kick by with a final lap of 64.87 seconds to break Paula Radcliffe’s British Record of 30:01.09. Monson followed closely behind, running 30:03.82 to take down her second record in the past month.

Now with that out of the way, there are five months to forget how much that probably hurt before it’s time to do it again in Budapest.

Catching up with Eilish McColgan🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

How is Colorado treating you right now? Will you be there training for long?

For the next month or so.

We got stuck in Flagstaff during the pandemic for about three months and our flights were canceled and it was chaos. We were staying in the basement of this eighty-year-old woman and starting to go crazy and the only flight home we could get was out of Denver. We checked out Albuquerque and Boulder, but when we drove to Colorado Springs we both really liked it here.

There are so many tracks to get access to and the trails were decent and quite flat — for me, that's a plus. Now we stay with a British family, Thomas Staines’ mum and dad. It's like a home away from home. It doesn't feel intense. Like, we're training and then it’s quite relaxed and chilled.

Is there anyone that you link up with when you're in Colorado, or is it mostly just Michael joining you by bike?

He's literally on every single run. Obviously, I train on my own, but it doesn’t really feel that way, so that makes life a lot easier. I don't feel like it's a hardship going out training when someone else is doing it with you. When Thomas is here, we'll go for easy runs together or sometimes with a Canadian athlete, Rob Heppenstall.

And I am sure there are plenty of sunny days to be enjoyed!

We do get dumps of snow, there's no doubt about it. But it clears quite quickly and it's always sunny. So even though it's freezing cold outside, it's snowing, the sun is actually out and that just makes a big difference. In the UK we have like 360 days a year of darkness and never see sunshine. You're much happier when the sun is out there’s a bright sky above you. It's very rare to see blue skies at home, plus you are at altitude here as well, which makes it feel like at least you're getting a benefit. When there is bad weather in the UK there is no benefit.

It makes you tough!

I've had plenty of years there! I'm more than happy to explore the rest of the world.

READ THE REST OF THIS INTERVIEW WITH EILISH HERE

Rapid Fire Highlights 🔥

• The USATF 15K Championships were held at the Gate River Run in Jacksonville and Emily Sisson won by 98 seconds in 48:26, her third victory at the race. But Hillary Bor took the $5000 equalizer bonus as he triumphed in 43:11.

• Erika Kemp has signed a professional contract with Brooks.

• Charles Hicks, the NCAA XC Champion from Stanford, has signed an NIL deal with Nike.

• World Championship silver medalist Brenda Martinez has welcomed her daughter Socorro “Coco” Belen Handler into the world.

• Addy Wiley quintupled at the NAIA championships, winning the 600, 800, Mile, 3000m and DMR, and led the controversy-mired Huntington team to second place.

• At Sound Running, Leo Young finished second to Casey Comber running 3:40.86 for 1500m.

Thanks so much to New Balance for sponsoring this week’s newsletter! The CITIUS MAG team will be in Boston covering the high school national meet, and we are very excited that musical guest Chloe will be there to perform.