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|  IAAF World Outdoor Track & Field Championships Press Release August 2007
While many sports fans are waiting for the start of high
school, college and pro football, the number one sport in the
World, Track and Field, will take center stage in Osaka, Japan
for the 2007 IAAF World Outdoor Track & Field Championships
August 25-September 2. Larry Eder and the American Track &
Field will have coverage of the World Championships. Check
back with -
www.runohio.com and look
under National News for in depth coverage of the
Championships.
From USA Track & Field - Press Release
Alan Webb and Bernard Lagat will bolster a strong Team USA
distance running contingent at the 2007 IAAF World Outdoor
Track & Field Championships August 25-September 2 in Osaka,
Japan.
Webb will compete in the 1,500 meter run, while Lagat will
toe the line in the 1,500m and 5,000m in Osaka. All told, Team
USA's men's distance corps features three American record
holders in Lagat (outdoor 1,500m, indoor 1,500m, mile,
3,000m), Webb (mile) and Matt Tegenkamp (2-mile). Tegenkamp
will compete in the 5,000m.
Webb is looking for a World medal in a season that has
already seen him set the American mile record (4:46.91). He
currently owns the top times in the world this year in the
1,500m (3:30.54) and the mile, and holds the second-fastest
time in the 800m (1:43.50).
On July 21 at the Atletiek Vlaanderen meet in Brasschaa,
Belgium, Webb ran 3:46.91 in breaking the American mile record
previously held by National Track & Field Hall of Fame member
Steve Scott, who ran 3:47.69 in 1982. Webb's time was good
enough for eighth-fastest in history. Webb's 800m time of
1:43.50 this season was almost two full seconds better than
his personal best.
Lagat, the 2004 Olympic silver medalist and 2000 Olympic
bronze medalist in the 1,500m, will make his World Outdoor
debut for Team USA. A native of Kenya, Lagat became a U.S.
citizen in August, 2004, and is now eligible to represent the
U.S. three years later.
Team USA has had two men in a World Outdoor 1,500m final
only once, in 1987, with Jim Spivey took the bronze and Steve
Scott placed 12th. Twenty years later, Americans will be
looking for two medals in the classic middle-distance race.
Team USA's women's distance aces feature a pair of American
record holders in Shalane Flanagan in the 5,000m and Deena
Kastor in the 10,000m. After breaking the indoor American
record in the 3,000 this winter, Flanagan ran 14:44.80 for
5,000m in April at Mt. SAC for her second AR of the year,
while Kastor ran 30:50.32 to break the record in the longer
event in 2002.
Fans can watch Team USA on national television broadcasts
on NBC and Versus, or online via live, daily webcast at
www.wcsn.com
For more information on Team USA at the World Outdoor
Championships, visit www.usatf.org/events/2007/IAAFWor
ldOutdoorChampionships
Schedule of Events
All times are local Osaka times - Osaka is +13 hours from
U.S. Eastern Time
TV Schedule
All times Eastern; subject to change; check local listings
Air Date Time Network
Team USA Roster
http://www.usatf.org/e
vents/2007/IAAFWorldOutdoorChampionships/roster.asp
IAAF's World Champships - Home page
http://osaka2007.iaaf.org/index.html
World Champs 2007: A Quick e-chat with Craig
Masback
Make no doubt about it, Craig Masback, CEO of USA Track &
Field loves his job this week. There have to be times, as he is
put under the microscope by friends and foes, that the
pressure gets old, but Masback should be about to have the
best ten days or so of his career. Much of that is thanks to
the strong and youthful USA Track & Field team that is in
Osaka, Japan for the World Champs.
Masback was made for this job. Youthful in his early
fifties, Craig was a former world-class miler (3:52.10), a
former sports broadcaster and former lawyer, specializing in
sports issues. His love of the sport is evident. His ability
to represent the sport in the best light is part of the job.
But there is more to Masback and his CEO title-most of the
time, you can get Craig to smile and he will note, in the
quiet moments (and there are not many with his family, travel
and the strains of the job) that he loves his job.
Below is an interview took place on August 22, 2007 in a
series of three emails between Craig and myself. Craig has
learned (and some of this is him and some of this is his press
czar, Jill Geer) that interviews are important. Masback makes
a point of writing and doing interviews.
(For the best picture of Craig in his racing prime, read
the Golden Mile, by Kenny Moore in Best Efforts, 1980).
The process worked for the echat as follows---I sent
questions, Craig answered them and told me not to worry about
editing. Neither he nor Jill Geer asked to edit the piece:
Larry Eder: With all the you deal with as a CEO of USAT
Track & Field, are the World Championships the icing on the
cake, or just another day in the office?
Craig Masback: The World Championships and Olympic Games
are special for our organization and for me. The performances
of our athletes are at the top of a pyramid that includes
every participant in our sport, all of whom "contribute" in
some way to the success of our very best performers.
LE: As a former competitor on the international scene, how
has the elite part of the sport changed since you competed?
CM: It is a much more professional sport today then it was
in the late 70s and early 80s. We would race three times a week
for the meager under-the-table money being offered and very
few athletes were professionally managed or supported. On the
plus side, we had very personal relationships with the meet
directors and federation officials from other countries. On the
minus side, we had to stay up until 3 am to collect our money,
had little or no medical support, and ran ourselves into
exhaustion every season.
LE: This year's WC team, from Alyson Felix and Jeremy
Wariner to Jenn Stuczynski, to Adam Nelson to Alan Webb and
Breaux Greer, seems to be one of the best ever assembled. Do
you look at this team and see that initiatives you put in
place over the last near decade have had some effect?
CM: We have an incredible mix of established stars and
exciting newcomers. We've won, on average, about 19 medals per
World Championships over the history of the Championships and
I think we have a shot of doing better than that. The
emergence of this generation of stars results from many
factors, including some that USA Track & Field plays a role in
and others where we don't . . . plus a little bit of luck. In
part, I think that this team is a positive aftershock of the
1996 Olympic Games---our young stars were an impressionable 8-
14 years old when America last hosted the Olympics. Plus, we
have the best development system in the world -- our high
school and university track and field programs. Finally, USATF
has significantly improved our High Performance Development
Programs, our organization and staging of our National Teams,
the opportunities to compete at a high level domestically via
the Visa Championship Series, and our financial and other
support to our athletes. All of those factors make a
difference.
LE: What event have you learned the most about that you did
not appreciate when you competed as a middle distance runner?
CM: I was always interested in every event in track and
field -- whether I could do them or not. In junior high, I was
a long jumper and triple jumper in addition to running the 300
yards and 440 yards. Essentially, all of the world records are
outrageous when you think about them or pace them off. Given
that I am still a pencil-necked geek, I guess the idea of
throwing a 16-pound shot 75 feet or long jumping 29+ feet is
pretty amazing -- for those that have never done so, get out a
tape measure and measure out those two distances some
time . . .it's a very entertaining thing to do at a party.
LE: How are the conditions in Osaka? How is the team spirit?
CM: It is very hot and humid in Osaka. Having said that, we
have a great team staff led by Pat Henry and Amy Deem and they
have the athletes in a very positive frame of mind -- "This
weather reminds me of the south," one athlete said.
LE: What will be the winning time in men's 1,500?
CM: 3:33
LE: How does the world view the U.S. team? How do you want
the world to view the U.S. team?
CM: Recent years have resulted in our Team USA being put on
an even higher pedestal than before. In part, this results from
our "World's #1 Team" branding campaign, but it also has to do
with the fact that we have reliably produced signature
athletes that win key events. Also, we have had charismatic
champions whose personalities transcended languages and
cultures. Our hosts at our training camp here warmly received
the team in the Osaka area -- the Osaka University of Health
and Sport Sciences.
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