Great deal riding on success of Nitro series
MELBOURNE: The world of track and field will be watching with bated breath when the revolutionary Nitro series begins in Melbourne on Saturday night.
Many involved in the sport at the highest levels feel that it simply has to succeed.
Crowds and interest are down around the globe — even at the prestigious Diamond League meets in athletics heartlands such as Oslo or Zurich.
Away from the Olympics and the biennial world championships, the biggest names do not go headtohead nearly often enough and ongoing doping scandals eat away at track and field’s credibility.
There needs to be a gamechanger.
With megastar Usain Bolt on board, teambased Nitro Athletics might just be the answer.
‘‘We’ve tried minor changes but we’ve never actually tried to shake up the game,’’ said former 400m runner and current Athletics Australia board member John Steffensen, whose close relationships with the likes of Bolt and the leading US and Caribbean athletes have been crucial in enticing so many big names to venture to Melbourne for the three meets today and on February 9 and 11.
‘‘You look at athletics globally, blind Freddy can see that the sport is either plateauing or going one way and that’s down.
‘‘So I believe this is a seminal moment, not only for athletics domestically but globally.
‘‘It needs to be able to appeal to the masses and in a commercial sense.
‘‘People can’t just relate to [Bolt’s 100m world record of] 9.58sec. It’s too far out of their dreams.
‘‘But they can relate to being part of a team and running in an event for your team because we all did that. We did that at school,’’ Steffensen said.
Sebastian Coe, the president of world track and field’s governing body, and leading officials from European Athletics, will be in Melbourne next week to watch the Nitro series firsthand.
They need it to be a winner, just as much as Bolt and AA, who have a financial stake in the concept.
‘‘Whether or not Usain was involved, this had to happen. There would still be a competition,’’ Steffensen said.
Drawing an analogy with cricket, Steffensen likens Nitro Athletics to the biggest Twenty20 competitions, such as the Indian Premier League or the Big Bash, and the traditional major meets such as the Olympics, equating to test matches.
As is the case with T20s, not everyone in athletics is convinced that Nitro is going to work. Or that it is the real thing.
But as Steffensen says, something had to give.
Nontraditional events such as the elimination mile and mixed relays will sit alongside races and disciplines more familiar to the purists.
Many members of the 24strong squads will need to step outside their comfort zones and tackle unfamiliar events.
That is part of the appeal. Bolt’s stacked All Stars squad will be heavily favoured in a sixsided competition against Australia, England, China, Japan and New Zealand.
The Australian squad is a mix of established names including Fabrice Lapierre, Ryan Gregson and Genevieve LaCaze, as well as youngsters. — AAP