German Federation Supports Hammer in Diamond League
Kathrin Klaas has the power to make some change.
In case you aren’t aware, the Diamond League was first announced in 2009 as the future of the sport’s prestigious and lucrative one-day meets. It was an ambitious plan to include all of the track and field events … except the hammer throw. The makeshift IAAF Hammer Challenge was set up with many meets that already supported the hammer, but that “solution” has turned from bad to worse over the first two years of the Diamond League despite the efforts of some supportive meet directors. In the meantime, the Diamond League continues to exclude the hammer throw and virtually no progress has been made on that front (except the news that the Prefontaine Classic will host the women’s hammer as an exhibition event for the second time in three years). Unfortunately it is the only Diamond League meeting to do so.
My criticisms of the Diamond League’s decision have not changed over the past three years (you can read my original post here) and there is no need to rehash them now as Kathrin Klaas put together an even better analysis this winter. The burden still rests on the Diamond League to explain why they have excluded the hammer throw. After three years they have yet to do so. And we are prepared to refute every one of their claims. The hammer is a safe and exciting sport. Including it in the Diamond League will improve track and field. And after years of talking, Kathrin finally was able to get some of the right people to listen. Kathrin’s activism recently received the official support of the German federation and Prof. Dr. Helmut Digel, the former president of the German federation and a member of the IAAF Council since 1995. After a roundtable discussion organized last week, she is now preparing a thesis paper that will be submitted to IAAF President Lamine Diack.
So what do we do now? Continue to keep the topic public. The more we discuss it in public, the better. Talk about it, share this post, share Kathrin’s posts, “like” her new project Wir Sind Hammer (a play on words meaning both “we are hammer” and “we are awesome”). But most of all make sure the athletics community knows that this problem exists and it will not go away. As with the USATF issue, both sides can benefit with the right solution.
Thanks, Martin. Really appreciate ur support for our sport. Lets get something rollin’…
Good luck with this campaign which I’m sure is supported by elite throwers in the UK as well. My bet is stadium and TV fans would love this event and the characters that do it – if they got the chance to see it at these big-time meetings.
Now… USATF… show where you stand…
It is regeneration or degeneration how do you vote?
i completley agree i am 13 yrs old and the only person in my school that does it there are 20+ people in a sprint group and 5 in the throws group apparently running the marathon for charity is much more talanted then being north-east champion. when watching the diamond league there has been no hammer or discus they assume that we would rather watch 5 laps of the 3000 meters instead hammmer throwing rules