Athletics European Championships 7 June–12 June. Ylen channels. See shipping information at this link.
ROME
Familiar from the athletics data bank called Tilastopaja Mirko Elm is one of the world’s leading statistics experts in track and field sports.
Jalava, which produces statistical data from the European Championships in Rome for Urheilu and the European Athletics Federation, sent a message to its contacts on Monday morning, warning them not to trust the information provided by Atos, the official results service of the Games.
According to Yelava, the information both contained errors and was not updated.
The situation is unheard of in prestigious athletics competitions and in a sport that is largely based on numerical data and the conclusions drawn from it.
TV and radio commentators in particular have been rattled when, as usual, the information has not been 100% reliable or has been insufficient.
The digital boss admits the disaster
Mirko Jalava evaluated the success of the Rome Games for Urheilu from this aspect as follows:
– This is by far the best performance ever.
On Monday, Urheilu reached out to the owner of the European Championship brand, i.e. the producer of the digital data services of the European Athletics Federation Nicholas Launois’n. Atos is the long-term producer of European Athletics’ digital results service.
– It is pointless to go around saying that Atos has been a big disappointment for us. There should be a comprehensive discussion about the contract’s extension and terms after the Games. Now we are trying to do our best to make it work better in the final races. We are very sorry for the possible impact of this failure on the TV product of the Games, said Launois.
Launois admitted that it is very difficult to correct the situation and especially its root cause, which is the severely under-resourced work of the responsible partner, only during the six-day games.
Pen and paper
– Athletics is based on numerical data, so this speaks of indifference towards the public and the athletes. For example, in pole sports – if you can’t completely rely on the data – it’s quite difficult to record even the decisive falls of the championship by hand, when there are four sports going on at the same time, says Urheilu’s chief commentator Elastic Gate space.
Porttila emphasized that he does not choose his working conditions under any circumstances and that the announcer has to be aware of the events on the field in all situations.
“On the very left hand”
The failure of the results service is the responsibility of the board member of the European Athletics Federation Antti Pihlakoski according to more effect than cause. The biggest failure of the Games was visible for a long time, but the local organizing committee and the Italian Athletics Federation flew into the rock wall in the first category.
– First of all, they handled the marketing of the games with the very left hand, that is, they simply did not tell the Italian people about such games. They were warned and pointed out many times about this, but the manana mood continued. The miserable failure of ticket sales was of course a logical consequence of that.
Pihlakoski tells the background that the sports federation of Italy, a very traditional athletics country, organizes the prestigious competitions in the midst of fierce internal conflicts.
There’s a power play going on
– The parties to the power game are the current chairman, the former chairman and the likely future chairman. The price of the power struggle is that the country that wins the medal statistics organizes the games, which in no way meet the standards of the European Athletics Federation. Munich 2022 was from a different planet.
Atos is not the only entity that is under-resourced.
– The training field has been missing, for example, fences. And when there has been one toilet for men and one for women at times without toilet paper, everyone can guess the consequences when the athletes are famously excited about their future performance on the training ground, says the GM of the federation that leads the Finnish team Jani Danish.
The supply of water has also been problematic at times on the training ground, but the transports, which caused panic at the beginning, have started to go more smoothly. The GM said the team was satisfied with the hotel and its staff.
Long protest lines
Tanskanen told about the long queues to the room in the stadium’s entrance, where the objections related to competition situations are left for the judges’ council to process.
– For example, I have seen two official results for the women’s steeplechase. According to others (the ones that remained in force in the end), the French national anthem was played during the award ceremony, others the German national anthem. Very interesting situation.
Pihlakoski, whose thumb is at the heart of the competition events, says he knows it well. The exceptionally large number of objections indicates that referee decisions have been made in the sports, which the athletes and their team management feel are against the rules.
– Yes, unfortunately, one can draw the conclusion that Italy apparently does not have a large enough number of trained, experienced and qualified judges for such a demanding event.
Unfathomable yellow
Competition Manager of the Sports Association What Stranger is also a high level rules expert. He was downright giddy in the stands of the Stadio Olimpico while watching the broadcast of the men’s 100m.
In the end, Italy got silver Chituru Under produced such pressure on the starting racks before the shot that, according to the rules, it was a false start that would have caused disqualification.
The Polish sender saw the situation this way, but the Spanish referee turned the decision into a yellow card, i.e. a warning.
– A completely absurd decision. As obvious a false start as can be, says Muukka.
Finland’s leading sender Sprout Artman share a vision.
– The situation was sanctioned according to the wrong rule, i.e. it was assessed as interference with the broadcasting situation, for which a yellow can be given. But yes, it was a false start, which can only be rejected.
According to Artman, the technical broadcasting itself has mostly functioned effectively in Rome.
– But some decisions regarding departures have undoubtedly given the impression that you don’t want to cause anyone a bad feeling. That cannot be the starting point. If anything, it is unfair to the sport itself and to the seven other athletes.
Quick beeper Santer Kuusiniemi advancing to the final race due to a crash was also considered by Artman to be a very special decision.
– He was by no means on his way there at the time of the collision.
A Machiavellian play
The silk glove treatment of home run hitter Chituru Ali probably cost Sweden Henrik For Larsson bronze medal.
Larsson’s teammate who participated in the 200 meters Eric Erlandsson got to be a part of a downright Machiavellian play in Rome. In the semi-finals, Erlandsson and the Czech Republic Tomas Nemejc ran one-thousandth of the same remaining time and finished in shared 8th place, the final place. No difference could be found between the two.
According to initial information, the Swede was out of the final competition, but luckily for him, the decision changed three more times and the lottery drum finally gave the 20-year-old talent a place in the finals with the decision of the sport manager, i.e. with the protocol marking qR.
– The situation is of course rare, but once 9 tracks are in use, according to my knowledge of the rules, there shouldn’t be any consideration, says Vesa Artman.
Although the European Championships in Rome eventually turned out to be exactly the kind of B-class event that Antti Pihlakoski was able to predict a long time ago, the experienced athletics man knows how to find a silver lining in the cloud.
– In Finland, the standards are very high in our sport, and when they are still adhered to both in competition implementation and media packaging, we know how to demand top quality. Now, unfortunately, it has not really been received.