Tuesdays in Tracktown

The highlight of the day was going to “Tuesdays in Tracktown” in the evening. This was a public meeting where coaches from the University of Oregon and Oregon Track Club get to talk to members of the public about the latest news from the running scene within Eugene. The University of Oregon director of athletics - Vin Lananna - hosts the evening and invites some of the Oregon based athletes to give talks on their experiences. Tonight’s special guests were Oregon Track Club Elite athletes Sally Kipyego and Will Leer and the head coach of the elite section, Mark Rowland. They were all fresh back from a trip to altitude in new Mexico where some of the athletes had also run in the USA national championships. In fact Will Leer had just qualified for the World Indoors in Doha, Qatar next month in the 1500m. Both athletes gave talks of their recent experiences as full-time athletes and then took questions from the floor. We also heard from the mens and womens sprint coach at the University of Oregon - Robert Johnson. The sprints section of the team has been getting stronger and stronger over the last few years and that is down primarily to Robert’s hard work. It was interesting to hear about his experiences recruiting athletes to a north-western based college. Most sprinters like to go to the southern states where it is warmer, but he has been able to build a program over the last few years that is now moving towards the top-tier of collegiate sprinting programs. It is all part of Vin Lanana’s plan to make the University of Oregon a more rounded team, with a good sprints section to add to the incredibly strong middle and long distance section.

Afterwards we managed to speak to some of the coaches and athletes, who were all really nice. We really enjoyed the evening and wondered if something like this would work in the UK. We didn’t think so, partly because there are few places with such a strong contingent of athletes based in one place and secondly because the general public wouldn’t be interested. This is testament to Oregon’s drive to maintain athletics in the publics consciousness, from daily updates in the local press, to regularly updating websites with videos and interviews. It allows people to get to know the personalities behind the athlete results and also get to know the coaches that are a part of that. There is a massive athletics fan base in the area, as evidenced by last night, but it should be reminded that these things don’t happen on their own. It takes work and perseverance to build relationships with the community and to build a knowledgeable fanbase. This is certainly one thing I think that athletics clubs and centres in the UK could learn from and maybe something I would try myself to one day implement. Watch this space…


Our host for the evening - Vin Lananna