Understanding the European Circuit

The European season is quite foreign to most people unless you’re an athlete on the circuit. This entry is to try give people a better understanding of the different types of meets and what they mean as an athlete.

Competitions

Personally, I didn’t even know that World Championships existed until probably 2000 or 2001 - all I really knew about were the Olympics and the Commonwealth Games. Maybe I led a sheltered athletic existence. It was over the following two years that I started to truly understand all the competitions within athletics.

Everybody in Australia knows about the Olympics and the Commonwealth Games. Every other year (on odd years - 2003, 2005, 2007 etc), World Championships are held which are essentially like the Olympics but only for Track and Field. Also on the odd years are the World Student Games (eligible only to university students).

Every four years on the same year as the Commonwealth Games, there is a competition called World Cup. World Cup is all straight finals and there are 9 representatives in each event, someone from each of the following areas: Oceania, Asia, Europe, USA, Americas (excluding USA), Africa, the host nation and the winning 2 European teams from European Cup (in essence, similar to Schools Cup). This year, the female European teams will be Russia and Poland.

The Goodwill Games, which are no longer held, were held every 4 years and they were all straight finals. Unlike the Olympics where you have to reach a qualifying standard, these games were invitation only. The idea was to invite the top 8 athletes in each event.

In addition to the outdoor season, there are World Indoors held every 2 years (on even years). Essentially, these are the same as the World Championships except the track is 200m around and is ramped, which is generally suited to athletes. They run different events to the typical outdoor season, like running the 60m sprint rather than 100m. Like the outdoor series of meets, there is also a series of indoor meets.

The IAAF also assist in funding a series of meets around the world, which are predominantly in Europe often referred to as the Grand Prix Circuit. There is also a hierarchy of competitions - categorised according to the level of the competition. This category of competition influences your world ranking and standings for the IAAF Grand Prix Final. The Olympic Games and World Championships are at the top of the hierarchy. Other highly ranked events include the IAAF World Athletics Final followed by Golden League Meets then Super Grand Prix Meets, Grand Prix Meets then Permit Meets. All Grand Prix events and higher ranked meets have attached prize money. As a rule of thumb there are premium, classic and promotional categories which determines prize money for placing usually in the top 5-8. Some athletes are also awarded appearance fees (eg like Asafa Powell) in addition to the up to the equivalent of AUD$27 000 (16 000 Euros) you may collect per race (for premium events). Pacemakers / rabbits can also pick up appearance money at meets to assist runners achieve personal bests and records. Bonuses may often be awarded for meet records, for example, in Stockholm, the meet record nets the athlete a one carat diamond. Some smaller meets may attract appearance fees for athletes plus or minus prize money.

Generally speaking the higher ranked events attract the better performed athletes and provide greater prize money. So when an athlete is reported to have won competition overseas, you can determine the credibility of the performance according to the type of meet.
To qualify to go to the World Athletics Final, the IAAF use a points system called Standings (see below for explanation). The World Athletics Final is a very prestigious competition and at this stage it looks as though seven Australians will be competing in Stuttgart this year. The winner of the each event at the World Athletics Final will walk away with an extra US$30 000.

The World Cup has a similar prizing structure to the World Athletics Final and the World Championships usually awards US$50 000 for a win.

There is still money in the world of athletics like all other professional sports. You just have to be one of the best in the world.

Rankings

Rankings are calculated for performances in relation to the world record, the wind reading, the level of the competition and the placing. Each athletes 6 best scores are averaged for their ranking. Most people would use this method to determine “who is the best in the world at present.”

Standings

Standings are only calculated according to your placing at Golden League, Super Grand Prix, Grand Prix and World Tour Permit meetings. It does not take into consideration the performance. Standings are used predominantly to determine who is selected to compete in the World Athletics Final. When you win a Golden League or Super Grand Prix, you are allocated 20 points and there are points down to 8th then 10 points for winning a Grand Prix and 6 points for winning Permit meets. Your best 5 results are tallied and the top seven progress to the World Athletics Final (in addition to a wild card to make up the eight competitors).

Top Lists

This is just a simple list of athletes’ best performances for the year. So the person on the top of the list has the fastest legal time or best jump. There is also a category for wind assisted performances. Arguably the person with the best performance for the year may be deemed the best in the world. This is difficult to justify as the conditions in every meet are different. It also doesn’t take into account the consistency of performance.