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Track back to the future?Jan 8 1999Olympic-World Cup soccer showdown could affect city's 2001 plans By TERRY JONES -- Edmonton Sun Did Edmonton's 2001 World Track & Field Championships just turn into the 2002 World Track and Field Championships? "I think we have to say that's now a possibility,'' says Edmonton 2001 boss Rick LeLacheur. "I wouldn't want to say it's a probability at this point. But it looks like it's a definite possibility. It could even be 2000.'' LeLacheur found himself fielding phone calls from international journalists yesterday while the Olympic Games-World Cup soccer scenario trickled down to the world's third-largest sports event, the IAAF's world championships. And this is a fight Dr. Primo Nebiolo, the IAAF boss, has been spoiling for, most insiders agree, for a long time. And if he gets it, track and field, the Olympics' marquee event, could be the big losers and Nebiolo's World Track and Field Championships would be the big winners. "We have not had any discussions with the IAAF. By the time we heard the news yesterday, their offices were closed,'' said LeLacheur. "As of right now, we're under contract to host the event from Aug. 3-12, 2001. "If it did move to 2002, it would be a benefit in some ways,'' said LeLacheur. Usually, the organizing committee for a major world event such as this would have a minimum of four years for the organizing committee to do its job. "From an organization standpoint, it would give us more time,'' said LeLacheur. "But it might give us too much time. To give us too much time to think about it might be dangerous. "Perhaps another scenario would be for the IAAF to move from odd-numbered years to even-numbered years starting in 2000,'' LeLacheur speculated. ATTRACTIVE ASPECT "While that would make our time difficult, I think it could be done and it certainly does have an attractive aspect in basically having the track and field Olympics here instead of Sydney 30 to 60 days before the Games.'' The scenario involving the three biggest world events is certainly providing the international media with a good chew. The story broke yesterday out of England: LONDON(AP) -- Track and field could take radical steps - including restricting Olympic competition to athletes 23 and under - if soccer's World Cup becomes a biennial event. Currently the Olympic Games are held every fourth year. The 2000 Summer Olympics will be held in Sydney; the 2004 Olympics in Athens. Currently the World Cup is every four years as well. World Cup '98 was in France. World Cup 2002 is in Japan-Korea. The World Track and Field Championships are held every two years, with the 1999 event scheduled for Seville, Spain, and 2001 for Edmonton. The IAAF (track) would protect the "exclusivity" of its world championships to counter any scheduling conflict with the World Cup or Olympics, IAAF spokesman Giorgio Reineri said in The Associated Press story yesterday. FIFA (soccer) president Sepp Blatter has proposed staging the World Cup every two years instead of four. Blatter has assured IOC (Olympics) boss Juan Antonio Samaranch that the World Cup would move to odd-numbered years to avoid the conflict with the Olympics. But the Olympics could still end up losers. Reineri says if that happened, the IAAF would move to even years and the Olympics would be left with an under-23 track competition, as is the case with Olympic soccer teams today. "If there is this clash, we will have to protect our world championships,'' said Reineri. "We will need to be assured we will be the only event with the best athletes. Naturally the IAAF would study the best way in order to assure the exclusivity of the best athletes for its world championships.'' Nebiolo, who hasn't been happy with the way athletics has been treated at recent Olympics, has previously made noises about sending under-23 athletes to the Olympics. Insiders figure he'd want to go to war immediately if the Olympic soccer schedule changes. TRANSITION EVENT Logically, you'd figure the earliest for a biennial World Cup would be 2006. Which, unless Nebiolo decided to be Quick Draw McGraw, would leave the next worlds after Edmonton, likely in London, to be the transition event for 2002 or 2004. But who knows. "I expect we'll probably end up where we are now,'' says LeLacheur. "But it's certainly going to be interesting to watch how this unfolds. This could put a real dent in the Olympics, especially from a TV point of view.'' If you have news, results or info please let us know by using our submission form or emailing Larry Steinke [ MEET INFORMATION ] [ ANALYSIS & TIPS ] [ THROWS ARTICLES ] [ INTERVIEWS ] [ RECORDS ] [ RESULTS ] [ CLASSIFIEDS ] [ HOT LINK ARCHIVE ] [ DISCUSSION FORUM ] [ SUBMISSIONS ] [ THROWERS QUIZ ] [ GUESTBOOK ] | ||