Selection controversy in UK

If he had been in the US he would not be going either. Same idea in that US runners had to have the "A" standard at the Trials at the latest to qualify.

Very little (no?) controversy here.

If GB had wanted to send him, they would not have been able to send anyone else as a country is allowed only 1 participant in an event if that person has the "B" standard.

Britain aren't taking anyone else in the 400h, the 49.06 today merely brought the issue to the attention of the wider public. the facebook group was saying he should go before today, based on the fact he meets several of the selection criteria, namely winning the trial, having the b standard, being an 'up and coming' athlete (which is a bollocks criteria tbh, but he's 22 and only took up the eent last year and has gone from 51. to 49.58, 49.50 and now 49.05 this year. other athletes are going with just one b standard achieved indoors while some with a standards are not - east in the 1500 (6th in athens) and stokes in the s/c. there are also issues over funded athletes being taken and non funded athletes not, and there is a hell of a lot of contradiction between different selections.

I think it was Dave Collins on the beeb yesterday during the coverage of Crystal Palace and he was saying that criteria called for the B standard to have been run on at least two occasions....which he had not done....and therefore was not selected....who are you talking about that achieved the standard once indoors and got picked..

I can't understand why GB is making up it's own criteria. I've always felt you should send as many people as possible and if the organisers set certain standards and athlete beats that standard then he/she should go.

p.s. Dave Collins is a twat.

kate dennison, women's pv

Im so annoyed about East and Stokes not going as well. If they have the A standard and theres room on the team why not take them. Okay Stokes wont make the final but hes trained his ass off for years for the selectors to snub him for no good reason. As for East he finished 6th in Athens, has the run the A standard and is a good tactician in Championships capable of making the final. If I was him I would be outraged. I can understand what they're saying about Yates but if we're not taking him because he had only ran the B standard once at the time of the trials why are Kate Dennison and Zoe D going as they only have one B standard performance.

UKA is a shambles. All this rubbish about developing young talent is nothing more than an excuse for treating people over 25 years old unfairly. It does nothing for the young talent either... UNLESS you are a young athlete that has already had considerable success. i.e. GB standards require that you are both YOUNG and FAST. The organization seems to be criticized on all sides (from athletes, physios, coaches, etc.), but for some reason it manages to limp onwards. The sad thing is that the young blood that comes into the organization i.e. Spencer Barden seem to get caught up in the whole old boy system rather than trying to shake things up.

what happened to michael east at the trials though? he looked awful (no offense to him by this, i just mean he looked like he wasn't running very well at all compared to where he used to be).