The World Athletics Continental Tour and the UK: Progress, but progress enough?
With the summer season nearly over, James Davis takes a look at the World Athletics Continental Tour meetings in the UK, and their relationship with the wider domestic athletics landscape
With 229 meetings in 2023, its fourth year of operation, the World Athletics Continental Tour finally looks to have the beginnings of a global footprint.
Designed by World Athletics to give clarity to the World Rankings, and formalise an otherwise informal hierarchy of one-day athletics meetings, this year saw 56 countries or territories host a meeting on the Tour, an increase from 39 last year, and just 24 in 2021.
Talking in late 2019, World Athletics president Sebastian Coe was effusive: "We are kick starting our campaign to build more quality one-day meetings around the world with the new Continental Tour, which will give more athletes more opportunities to compete across all disciplines, to earn prize money and world rankings points and to build their profiles."
Looking at the distribution of events around the world provides few surprises — Europe is strongly represented, with the United States also leading the way.
Despite three Diamond League meetings between them this season, Asia and Africa see relatively few events at the levels below, though both Kenya and Botswana hosted Gold-level meetings, as the sport continues to attempt to broaden its global appeal.
One factor in the Tour's increasing international reach is the 2022 addition of the Challenger-level tier, intended by World Athletics to broaden access for both athletes and fans.
As the World Rankings play an increasing role in the lives of men and women at the sharp end of athletics, Challenger events, sitting at World Rankings level 'D', see the same number of ranking points added to a winning performance as at national indoor or road running championships.
With a comparatively low barrier for organisation in relation to the rest of the Tour — hosting a Bronze-level meeting requires forking out at least $25,000 in prize money, compared to European Athletics' recommended €4,000 for a European Challenger — a number of countries have made the most of this, most notably Germany with 22 Challenger-level meetings out of their 28 total on this year's Continental Tour.
Just behind Germany on number of meetings is the UK, whose presence is reduced significantly when their eight Challenger-level meetings are excluded.
The well-established Night of the 10,000m PBs put on a spectacular show this year as a Silver-level meeting — standout performer Mizan Alem Adane stormed away from the field to become the twelfth woman ever to go under 30 minutes, producing the fastest run ever on British soil.
However, that night in Highgate aside, there were no other British representatives in the upper echelons of the Continental Tour in 2023.
After hosting a Silver-level event outdoors in 2022, as well as a Bronze-level meeting on the World Athletics Indoor Tour earlier this year, financial difficulties for organiser Bryggen Sports caused the cancellation of the planned 2023 edition of the outdoor meeting, with all traces curiously scrubbed from the internet, and the limited company seemingly responsible for the event in the process of being struck off.
With so few domestic competition opportunities at the tiers above, there is an unfortunately overwhelming middle-distance focus for athletes looking to contest meetings at Challenger level in the UK.
With the five British Milers Club Grand Prix solely serving up events from 800 to 5,000 metres, Scotland's Monument Mile Classic a mile-only event, and the Belfast Irish Milers Meet only adding a handful of sprint events beyond that, just one Challenger meeting catered for a fuller spectrum of events, or field events at all, this year — the Loughborough EAP.
While such a narrow focus is not the fault of event organisers themselves, instead being representative of the realities of organising high level athletics meeting in the UK, it is nonetheless an example of the lopsided provision that those in technical disciplines often encounter, whether in availability of competition, or even simply availability of facilities or equipment with which to train.
With this in mind, what does it take to put on a meeting at this level, why do we not see more of them, and what does each provide to the wider athletics community?
After the British Milers Club celebrated their 60th anniversary earlier this year, the tried and tested, if uninspiring series of Grand Prix meetings provide a solid core around which the UK's middle distance athletes can structure their season.
In much the same mould, the Irish Milers Club's Belfast meeting does well to offer competition opportunities for Ireland-based athletes, but little beyond that, while the long-running Loughborough EAP meeting is typically populated mostly by the university's admittedly highly talented athletes, rather than those coming from further afield looking for high level competition.
Doing things a little differently, and inaugurated comparatively recently, is The Monument Mile Classic.
Organised by Central AC, a Scottish club most notable recently for their stunning men's victory at the 2023 English National Road Relays, the event consists of a graded series of mile races at the University of Stirling's athletics track.
First won by British and Scottish internationals Ben Greenwood and Mhairi MacLennan in May of 2018, the event really took off in 2020, despite two pandemic-enforced postponements pushing it back to September.
With the meeting's year-on-year improvement allowing a step up onto the Continental Tour in 2023, Michael Wright, the meeting's Race Director and an endurance coach based with Central AC, attributes its recent success to that 2020 edition.
"Jonny Davies and Ian Crowe-Wright drove up the road for it, because we were one of the few meets actually happening," says Wright.
The pair of Birmingham University alumni were handsomely rewarded for the cross-border trip, dipping below four minutes for the first time in their careers, becoming the first athletes to break the historic barrier at the event.
"That kind of set us off on a positive trajectory, that maybe the tracks aren't that slow in Scotland, and the weather's not always horrendous," jokes Wright.
The following year saw the addition of 1500 metre split times and wheelchair racing, as well as a move up to a national (Level 2) event permit, while 2022 saw the addition of finish line pyrotechnics.
While Ben MacMillan's impressive meeting record of 3:57.76 that year, backlit by towers of flame, marked another watershed moment as the first sub-4 run by a Scot on Scottish soil for almost 40 years, the move up to Challenger status for 2023 precipitated the biggest changes for Wright and his organising team.
Appearing on the World Athletics Calendar for the first time, the increased visibility generated interest from athletes far beyond that seen in any of the previous five editions.
"What we've quickly found is that agents, coaches, and athletes are all getting in contact with us directly, because we've been on the calendar," says Wright. "The net result for us has been that we've had a lot of agents and quality athletes from literally around the world asking to come into our race."
Nothing if not a steep learning curve, accommodating the needs of elite athletes brings considerations far beyond the confines of the athletics track.
For Wright, the challenge brings new expectations, and a greater focus on the deliverables that matter as event organisation gets more serious.
"We're definitely aware of the expectations of agents and athletes that you run a good track meet," he says. "Hotel rooms, transport, airport transfers, all these things that we [can] do to make the experience really positive for elite athletes.
"I think we're very conscious that we need to run a professional track meet and there will be eyes on us if that doesn't happen."
The reward for Wright and his team in 2023 were fields with a truly international flavour, with 10 countries represented across the men's elite races, and eight in the women's.
Sara Lappalainen set a Finnish record of 4:28.12 to win the women's race and the £400 that came with it, while European U23 1500 metres medallist and Swede Samuel Pihlström ensured a Scandinavian sweep in 3:54.83, both marks scything a huge margin off the previous meeting records.
Behind them, some serious quality followed, as six men tailed Pihlström to a sub-4 clocking, while Lappalainen led four others sub-4:30.
When considering the growth of the event so far, and the meeting's outsized reputation in comparison to the track it takes place on (four circular lanes, six on the home straight), Wright is pleased to have put Stirling on the international athletics map.
"We're a pretty small athletics club in Stirling, in Scotland, and I think it shows what can be done with a good team that's passionate about athletics," he says.
"[You can find success] if you've got a good organising team that are willing to work hard, put the effort in, and get on top of things early, because it does take a full year to make the meet happen."
Though there is no doubt that Stirling now has its own piece of athletics magic each year, it is far from being the case that the only place this can happen is the Scottish Lowlands — where there is willing, there is potential.
"I think there's no reason why other clubs and universities in the UK can't be stepping up," Wright says. "What I would say is, athletics meetings, as I've come to learn over my 5 or 6 years, are horrendously complicated, and logistically very difficult, and I think sometimes our sport doesn't help ourselves."
For those who have tried to put meetings of their own together, this may seem like an understatement.
Coordinating details with facility operators, providers of photofinish and EDM (Electronic Distance Measuring), as well as at least two dozen officials can cause a headache for even the most experienced organiser, and that is before the additional considerations of a livestream, event photography, travel and accommodation for athletes, or even pyrotechnics.
The granular and disparate nature of each element required for a successful meeting requires foresight, a thorough understanding of what it means to put on a good athletics meeting, and a fair amount of luck, easily dissuading the less ambitious.
While bringing all elements together is a non-negotiable for those wanting a successful meeting, broader factors in the landscape of domestic athletics will continue to shape the challenges that a current or prospective organiser faces.
With previously high-quality facilities no longer able to host top-tier meetings — Bedford failed to hold a single major event in 2023 — and the complexities of maintenance meaning facilities can be put out of action for extended periods, often at short notice, as Chelmsford was this year, finding somewhere capable of hosting a complex event is no longer a foregone conclusion.
A wider officiating crisis permeates the sport, and staffing a meeting can become nigh-on impossible if there is an unfortunate clash of dates.
One official, responsible for recruitment at a major meeting in the domestic calendar and who wishes to remain anonymous, paints a grim picture: "There simply aren't enough officials in our region currently to cater for multiple big events on the same weekend, despite attempts at sending our club members on courses.
"In both of the last two years we have been concerned about meeting officiating requirements and licensing deadlines, resulting in high stress levels, but luckily we've always managed to make things work."
Looking past the bare essentials, those meetings which are able to mark themselves as a class apart typically make good use of social media, spreading images and video of their meetings far and wide.
The ecosystem of athletics media in the UK makes this a challenge, with even UK Athletics struggling to get events onto the BBC, but the benefits can be substantial.
A paywalled stream by the now American-owned Vinco will almost certainly limit coverage of a meeting to all but the most dedicated viewers, hardly an encouraging factor for organisers looking to put their meeting in front of as many eyeballs as possible.
Streams from providers outside of the sport introduce a greater cost element, as well as potential unfamiliarity with a sport notoriously challenging to cover well, while homegrown livestreams often demand far greater time and personnel investment to achieve a similar quality.
As part of the organising team at the University of Birmingham Track and Field Series, Zach Bridgeland is responsible for coordinating the broadcast of each event, covering thousands of performances over the course of a season, and is unequivocal about the benefits.
"The manpower necessary to put on a livestream forces event organisers to make a decision between relying on an army of volunteers or employing the services of a professional company, often at great expense," he says. "At Birmingham University we have struck a middle ground by working with Eventcast to provide equipment and technological expertise, while using student volunteers to fill many of the labour-intensive roles such as manning cameras and commentating.
"This has allowed us to provide free livestreams of our events since 2021 and has been fundamental to the growth of our open series. Hopefully the cost of providing livestreams will continue to fall making it easier for athletics fans to engage with grassroots events."
Logistical concerns aside, it is also difficult to go too far into a discussion about athletics without the question of money arising, and balancing a budget is almost the sole determinant as to whether organisers and athletes can come back year after year.
With broadcast revenue a near impossibility, ticket sales having the unfortunate effect of reducing attendances, and entry fees limited simply by the throughput of an athletics track, sponsorship is the key revenue stream for organisers looking to break away from the pack.
The Monument Mile Classic had a range of partnerships in 2023, from the sports-related to the more standard commercial interests, and Wright strikes an optimistic tone when considering how the model could be applied elsewhere.
"I don't think it should be difficult to get people to sponsor athletics," he says. "We've had parity between men and women for 30, 40, 50 years in athletics, and obviously a lot of other sports are playing catch-up in respect to that, so it should be an easy sell.
"I don't think it should be difficult to find sponsorship for good quality athletics meets in the UK, I think you do just need a team who are willing to put in the hard yards, and preferably have connections that they can utilise.
"I think there are definitely companies out there that would happily throw significant sums of money at athletics if they had the right person approach them, if they were made more aware of it, if they were engaged a bit more."
The disparity between those convinced of the value of athletics as a marketable product, and those who are capable of selling it as such, is seen frequently, and has the capacity to hamstring even the most storied, well-loved and widest-reaching organisations, as recently experienced by the English Schools' Athletics Association.
So what of the future? While it is hard to fault the achievements of those attempting to push athletics forwards, it is an unfortunate reality that even the Challenger meetings that took place in the UK this year have the lowest prize money on offer of any of their European counterparts.
A brief read of the conditions required to elevate a meeting to Bronze or Silver level is enough to make even the most deep-pocketed organiser sweat.
A move up to Bronze level for The Monument Mile Classic would require a minimum of €2,500 of prize money per elite event, some threefold improvement on the £700 offered in 2023, while meetings hosting a broad spectrum of events, such as the Loughborough EAP, would be on the hook for at least €30,000 in prize money, as part of a six-figure budget.
The unfortunate reality of these figures means that to go abroad and finish in a minor position at a Bronze- or Silver-level meeting will almost certainly see an athlete better off than winning a Challenger at home, even if covering travel and accommodation costs themselves.
While Wright and others undoubtedly possess the drive to elevate their meetings further, is it feasible to think we might see these events, or others, at higher levels in the next five, or even ten years?
Though impossible to rule out, finances will undoubtedly be the barrier, with budget demands only likely to increase, and so much hinges on whether event organisers can convince big name sponsors to come on board.
With no title sponsor willing to take on the sold-out London Diamond League this year, it certainly appears a challenging case to make.
If European Athletics' willingness to continue providing a broad range of Challenger-level permits across the continent continues, there are undoubtedly meetings in the UK which could join the existing octet in the coming years.
Newham and Essex Beagles' sprint-oriented meetings look to be getting faster and faster, a raft of sprint stars in attendance at each thanks to an athlete-focused approach, while the UK's largest field event festival, BIGish, sees performances worthy of Continental Tour status, though it would present a significant challenge to return to the stature it once had as the Bedford International Games.
With limited numbers of athletes competing at any one Continental Tour meeting, such events will never be the be-all and end-all for athletics in the UK, but it is hard not to see them as products of the wider domestic athletics environment in which they sit.
Is it a shock that three of the six individual medals won by the Great Britain and Northern Ireland team at the 2023 World Athletics Championships came in middle-distance events, when the superstructure of competition in those disciplines is the strongest?
Should we be equally unsurprised to see a Scottish mile meeting taking off, as we have seen the second Scot in as many years take the metric world title?
While linking individual meetings to individual medal achievements is a lesson in futility, it is hard not to see domestic calendar strength as at least partially fuelling international success.
However, for the community at large, perhaps even more important is the day-to-day reality that the vast majority of athletics meetings do not sit on the Continental Tour, but can benefit from their presence.
Convincing sponsors of athletics' value proposition at a higher level can only serve to increase the possibility of similar arrangements at a lower level, and attracting new spectators is likely to broaden the base of those involved at the grassroots.
Low-cost solutions for live results, livestreaming, photography, and other enhancements are now available to the average meeting organiser, and their use at higher levels breeds both familiarity and the expectation that these are basic essentials rather than aspirational add-ons.
While the development of domestic athletics meetings is unpredictable, what is unquestionably true is that future success will not look like the success of the past, and organisers free of the strictures of tradition often fare far better in an ever-evolving landscape than those who are well-established and fail to move with the times.
With strong, albeit sporadic examples of best practice dotted throughout the UK athletics calendar, it should not be news to any organiser paying attention that an athlete- and spectator-led approach will yield results, though perhaps at the expense of those less eager to evolve.
It is uncomfortable to contemplate survival of the fittest when the infirm are of potentially key and longstanding members of the athletics community, but it is necessary. As the Continental Tour moves forward, and optimists can look forward to elevated standards of domestic athletics meetings, the choice is to grow or perish — the long-suffering athletes of the UK deserve growth.