Track and Field Returns: Observations from Two Meets

Well I made a determination that I would start posting every week starting in 2021, so it's kind of a fluke that I'm posting just a week after my triumphant return. But we had not one, but two athletics competitions in Europe this week, so I feel compelled to share my joy of watching both those meets. The first meet was the Paavo Nurmi Games, held in Finland on Tuesday. For all intents and purposes, the meet looked like a regular meet. Masks were not required by fans (and there were fans in the small stadium) and all the competitions went ahead as planned. There were throwing, jumping, and running events. The setup of the field looked like usual, too. Finland has very few cases of COVID-19 at the moment, so their risk levels are quite low compared to the rest of mainland Europe. (You might wonder why I'm mentioning these things. Stay tuned for the Diamond League information, and you'll know why.) Since the meet was a World Athletics (the name of the official governi