22 at hl e t ic s
22 at hl e t ic s
at crucial moments as athletes made attempts. Track and field events were not staged simultaneously which made for some dull moments. The crowd started to trickle out after the Gatorade Bolt 100m, which meant some of the best performances of the evening, in particular the Albie Thomas Mile and Dani Samuels went relatively unnoticed as they were some of the last events of the evening.
WHAT THEY HAD TO SAY
Alan Jones – Radio broadcaster
“ The crowd’ s good, but its not the type of crowd you would expect with a person the calibre of Usain Bolt. That’ s the disappointing feature.
“ Given what track and field is in this country, its a tremendous success.
I suppose you have to compare it to what it normally is. Track and field is at the bottom of the birdcage, it has serious, serious problems. Administratively it doesn’ t look after its athletes. You have people like John Steffensen who is on the outside because he wants answers to legitimate questions. You have Craig Mottram, the greatest middle distance runner we’ ve ever had, at least since Elliott, can’ t make the team because he was injured and they wouldn’ t pick him.
“ Athletes come to me and say there are real, deep seated problems here. For example, at the Commonwealth Games we aren’ t sending a women’ s 4x100m relay team. There’ s all of those girls here tonight who
“ Track and field is at the bottom of the birdcage, it has serious, serious problems.” were running tonight. They are young and promising – send a relay team! Give the experience and invest in them. So compared where track and field is, to think that at this hour of the night that they are still sitting here, when all the big stuff is finished, it’ s been a success in that set of circumstances.”
John Steffensen – Commonwealth Games 400m champion
“ It’ s good to see athletics