England Athletics screwing over marathoner for Commonwealth Games selection

Justice4theEnglish1 wrote:

Granted, the Commonwealth Games aren't that big of a draw internationally, but yesterday the English Track & Field team was announced for next year's games - the sole male marathoner to get the QT Jonny Mellor (who ran 2:12 in Berlin, over a minute under the 2:14 QT), wasn't selected as he wasn't considered to have "medal potential", despite the fact that a) the marathons in the previous 5 editions were won in about 2:11, and b) they selected three triple jumpers (no disrespect to these 3 guys, but seriously!?!).

Does anybody who is more clued in to the selection process have any idea why this is? Surely this should have been a shoe-in to the team for someone who has improved their marathon PB by 4 minutes in the last 12 months??

bump

Ok, some additional info.

1. The Commonwealth Games limits the number of participants across all events from each country, and each county's games committee then allocates a number of places to each sport, England Athletics were given 75 spots, with over 130 athletes with qualifying performances.

2. A time run in optimal conditions in a big city Autumn marathon is not really a good indicator that someone will be able to run that time in a summer marathon on the other side of the world.

3. When setting his pb in Berlin, Mellor was the 5th commonwealth athlete across the line 6 mins 43 seconds behind the third commonwealth athlete.

4. In London he was the 9th, 11 mins 03 seconds behind the third commonwealth athlete.

5. In the 2017 lists he is behind athletes from Kenya, Tanzania, Lesotho, Uganda, Scotland, South Africa, Brunei and Australia. Most of these countries have multiple athletes ahead of Mellor, and there are

6. In the triple jump the rankings are 17.02, 16.83, 16.81, 16.80, 16.80, 16.77, 16.75, 16.75A and 16.73. The 3 selected English athletes are the 16.81, 16.80 and 16.73. All 3 are clearly contenders at the Commonwealths.

7. There are potentially 9 athletes that can line up with a best time this year more than 2mins 30 faster than Mellor, whereas it's only 8cm to the third best triple jumper for our lowest ranked triple jumper.

Yes it would be nice if the Commonwealth Games Committee could afford not to limit places offered to each country, but as can be seen by Birmingham being the only bid in the current round, the economics of the games don't allow for that. It's tough on some of the athletes, but I cannot honestly see selecting Mellor over the triple jumpers as being a reasonable decision. He really has not been screwed over by England Athletics.

Bump

That all makes sense, but why put in place a 2:14 qualifying time? Against the top runners, 2:08 would be a reasonable QT on that basis. Why dangle a carrot if when someone manages to grab it, you just say "nah, you need to be waaaaay faster to get in the team"?

No carrot dangling, the selection document could not have been clearer that getting the standard was not going to be enough, anyone pretending otherwise hasn't read it or is being deliberately disingenuous. It clearly states in bold on point 1.5 that there are limited places and getting the standard isn't enough.

The issue for me is more around the mixed messages coming out of England Athletics.

England Athletics have recent launched the 'Marathon Programme' (

https://www.englandathletics.org/england-athletics-news/marathon-development-opportunities-for-athletes-and-coaches?returnLink=bmV3cy5hc3B4P3NpdGVzZWN0aW9uaWQ9NDImc2l0ZXNlY3Rpb250aXRsZT1FbmdsYW5kK0F0aGxldGljcytOZXdzJm9yaWdpbmFscGF0aD1lbmdsYW5kLWF0aGxldGljcy1uZXdzJnBhZ2U9NiZyYW5nZT0=

). This initiative is aimed at driving up the standards of marathon running from men and women however, the recent debacle around the lack of marathoners competing for England at the Commonwealth Games seems slightly at odds.

In one hand they're saying we want to increase the performance of our marathoners, in the other they're saying that when it comes to major games / championships that the marathoners and endurance athletes are bottom of the pile.

I suspect there is a little more to this than meets the eye...not in terms of personal conflict between athlete and selectors, more around the fact that they want (maybe need) to be high up the medal table and therefore sacrificed the endurance athletes who weren't likely to podium to protect the medal count.

Unfortunately medal counts are used as a barometer of success by most, and future funding streams are often dependant upon medal success.

Given that most of the top Kenyan and other Commonwealth runners from Africa will NOT be at the Games (running the spring marathons that pay well!) Mellor would have been pretty near the front of the field if he had run 2:12.

More evidence of British athletics' obsession with sprints and jumps - events that 90% of athletic's fans find very boring!

Not sure if you copied and pasted this but, if not, good job on providing some much needed context and clarity. The Committee could decide it's their job to spread the places across events, or try to encourage athletes in events where GB is currently weaker but they didn't. As long as they're objective about it (and it seems they have been), I have no issue with the process.

Yes he has been done over. He is a victim because he is in a much more competitive sport - in fact he is in the world's most ferociously competitive sport -distance running. Let's be honest - who the heck does triple jump? I respect the triple jumpers and the training they do but at the end of the day, they are in a niche event that requires complex technical training and as a consequence has a much smaller talent pool. Millions of people all over the world run in marathons. Not so for people trying triple jump.

The English team management would rather win medals in obscure sports that no one has the opportunity to compete in or care about except for maybe once every 4 years. It's not really the best thing to do to inspire your population to take up regular sporting activity and become more fit and healthy - you want them to do sports such as distance running that they can easily do and which are accessible to pretty much everyone as a starting point.

So some take the position that a genuine medal hope in the triple jump should lose out to a guy who managed to run a pb unsurprisingly on the world's fastest course, which he is extremely unlikely to match in a champs event on the Gold Coast in April on a slower course. Why should a triple jumper who was 8cm behind the second best in the commonwealth be denied their chance just to let someone 8 minutes behind the third best in the marathon have a run out? Get some objectivity. The management's rather give those with the best chances of winning a medal the chance to do so in their career, you would rather deny the athlete that chance so Mellor can get a run at a Championships.

Btw I don't think marathon runners are "bottom of the pile", objectively he is further from a medal, less consistent, you seem to want selection based on bias.

So when they refuse to take a no hoper in an already popular discipline they're failing to encourage the grass roots and grow the sport but when they take three legit medal contenders in a niche sport with low participation that's overkill?

I'm playing devil's advocate but the real issue is athletics continuing to pretend that all disciplines are equal and national selectors having to live within that paradigm.

Some Americans just don't realize how poor England/the UK actually is. It's not a big rich country like the US that can afford to send full teams to international competitions. England and the UK are just too impoverished to do that. When you consider how many administrators, coaches and trainers they have to send, there's just not any money left to send all of the athletes. It's almost as bad as Canada!

Maybe the US should send them economic development teams that could teach them how to hold bake sales and gofundme campaigns so that they could afford a few more airplane tickets and hotel rooms to send all of their qualified athletes to international competitions.

Well, developing economies, that's a dumb comment. It is nothing to do with England Athletics funding, they are restricted by the Commonwealth Games Federation.

The Other Ultra Boy wrote:

3. When setting his pb in Berlin, Mellor was the 5th commonwealth athlete across the line 6 mins 43 seconds behind the third commonwealth athlete.

4. In London he was the 9th, 11 mins 03 seconds behind the third commonwealth athlete.

Then the Qualifying Time is wrong. If the Committee is so hell bent on only taking runners who have a chance to medal, then they should take the median time of the third place finisher from the last 4 CG and set that as the QT. Otherwise, they might as well as have a QT of 2:45 and give everybody a feelgood story for each marathon--278 RUNNERS QUALIFIED FOR 2018!!!

Right now, you have to get the QT and then run to the results tables and run your own regression plot to see if you qualify? Bonkers.

has more of a change getting medals than Niamh Emerson, Katie Stainton Ashley Bryant, John Lane Nick Miller, Taylor Campbell Jade Lally Adam Hague, Luke Cutts,

his time would of been quick enough the last 5 commonwealth games to medal and England have selected an 2;16 last time around who at the time was 40 (steve way)

2014 winner Michael Shelly ran 2:13:09 in chicago the autum before the games he went on to win it

Sorry but this whole " his time is good enough to....." nonsense is ridiculous. He ran his time on the fastest course in the world, on a date picked for optimum marathon conditions, and was not in the first 3 commonwealth athletes in that race by minutes. Instead he will be running against a greater number of commonwealth athletes in less ideal conditions, his pb is simply not comparable with a champs performance. Btw, where does his second best lifetime performance place him?

Yes Steve Way was selected last time, but have you even bothered to understand that last time England did not have restrictions on numbers they could take, placed upon them by the Commonwealth Games? To take him this time means denying someone else a spot.

Matt Silver,

Bryant and Lane were ranked 3rd and 4th in the Commonwealth in 2017, Hague and Cutts equal 4th (excluding not travelling British) , Emerson 3rd, Stainton 6th, Lally 4th, Miller 1st and Campbell 3rd.

Even limiting each country to 3 only Mellor is 16th.

I have to suggest you are clueless as to medal chances at the Commonwealth Games, or wilfully ignorant.