The governing body’s president, Hansjorg Wirz, said he was “very happy with the way the regulations were received” at the European Team Championships.

Wirz, however, added that there would be a consultancy phase, with feedback sought from athletes, spectators, media, sponsors, etc.

If so, Wirz should get a tape of the BBC’s coverage. At times it was simply painful to watch, especially during distance races when Steve Cram was commentating.

The devil-take-the-hindmost rule was an outright disaster, with the women’s 3000m ending in farce and the pile-up in the men’s 3000m calamitous.

It is debatable whether limited field attempts enhance the action. Two heats for short races hardly created a better spectacle either.

The whole thing stank of desperation. The sport is struggling to attract fans, but this is not the answer.

WHEN it comes to media interviews, athletics is in danger of following the football route.

First, one of AW’s reporters found his questions to Christine Ohuruogu blocked at a recent press conference. A few days later, questions to an athlete we have interviewed without difficulty for more than a decade were deflected to UKA, who then advised us to make interview requests via them in future.

In the past week, Phillips Idowu declined to speak to BBC Radio 5 in Leiria. And respected Independent On Sunday columnist Alan Hubbard had to tell his readers that there was no “message from an icon” to accompany the newspaper’s “Going for gold” series on potential Olympians because Paula Radcliffe’s management agency, Octagon, said the world record-holder was too busy to offer a line or two about Emily Pidgeon.

This growing trend is partly why I’ll be spending most of the July 10-12 weekend at the Aviva English Schools and not the World Trials, covering athletes who actually want to be interviewed.

Plus, if this is the scenario in a non-Olympic year, I dread to think what the summer of 2012 will bring, with athletes and their advisers keen to “minimise distractions” in the run-up to the Games.

Can I remind athletes that without the media you would not have an audience?

Jason Henderson, Editor

From this week's Athletics Weekly, - available in WH Smith and all good newsagents, or on subscription