Nashville City Championships: The Meet Must Go On

Results | Race Videos

Let Them Race!

On the original schedule, the finals for the running events of the Nashville Track And Field Championships were supposed to start at 5:30. The meet had been moved up to 4:30 to try to dodge the impending rain. That lasted, to an extent for approximately half the meet. There were some light sprinkles here and there but once we hit the 400m the umbrellas came up for good and by the time we hit the 3200m, no one had dry clothes. 

With only one heat of each event, the pace of the meet, even without rushing, was brisk. As the meet pressed on, more open lanes emerged. The girls 100 had seven participants, the 400m had six, and the 200 had just five. 

USN's Alima Kassim won the event with a new TN #1 of 24.69. Kymora-Lee Williams, who held the top spot at 24.70, placed runner up. It was her 3rd open event of the evening after winning the 100m and 400m and the event started just 20 minutes, if that, after run 56.10. 

All this is to say, athletes didn't let the conditions get the better of them and the competition pressed on to the final gun which is when things really got exciting. 

From a meet management standpoint, for the first two and half hours of Friday went on without incident. The starter never had to call the athletes out of their blocks, the hurdles were promptly place and removed, and there weren't many long pauses figuring out who was who in the distance events. The only issue arose is at the start of the boys mile relay. 

As you can hear in the video, a second gun goes off. This was shot by the timing tent to signal that the sensor for the timing system did not pick up the first shot by the starter. However, in the pouring rain, the runners didn't hear this. What you don't see after the recording ends, is the first leg runners ran all the way to the 200m mark before enough people ran across the field to grab the attention of all the lead legs. Most walked back in disbelief that of all times to have this happen, it had to occur on the final race. At this point, there wasn't exactly a hurry to rush these runners back into the blocks to start all over again. Instead there was a quick shuffling of the deck. Batons were being handed off between teammates as legs were becoming anchor legs, blocks were being reset when all of the sudden a singular lightning strike illuminated the stadium followed by a low rumbling of thunder in the distance. Then, the dreaded announcement over the loud speaker... 

"Ladies and gentlemen, lightning has detected in the area. Please exit... 

A cacophony of disbelief from the coaches, athletes, and parents ensued. Even the starter, who I've known in passing as a Meet Official over the course of many years that has always been cool, calm, and collected emerged from the timing tent pumping his fists yelling "LET'S GO!" as he hustled athletes back to their starting positions. The PA announcer never finished his statement. If he did, there was such an uproar no one heard him and the race was contested without incident with MBA putting a bow on their team championship with a victory. 

It was so frantic that it was energizing which is what I needed as we enter the homestretch of this season. Several have thanked me for coming to the meet to which I'll respond with "For what?" I stood under and umbrella for three hours. YOU ran a PR in the pouring rain and allowed me to be there to cover it. You'll never have to thank me for that. If there's track and field happening somewhere in Tennessee, we'll try to be there. Rain or Shine.