Top UK pros claim Lauir Muir was allowed to enter 800 at UK champs after deadline, Muir wins race

And this is why track and field is still a bush league sport. Lynsey Sharp gets dusted in a fair race where everyone started at the same time and 800m were run, and it's now a "rules" thing. I don't care if she signed up a half hour before the race, if she has the entry fee and the proper credentials, she gets to run.

This kind of stuff drives me crazy because it does appear that there was favoritism but when you call it out you look like the sore loser, because it's a detail issue, but to some people details matter.

It happens all the time, sometimes it's dealines, or eligibility criteria, sometimes it's inconsistent rules for on track infractions, or sometimes they let the top dogs check in late and goto in line at there leasure while others have to wait in the check in area when a meet is deadlines.

For USAs registrations at least in my experience the USATF website does a very good job, lists everyone that has signed up and the mark they entered and the USATF review status in realtime. The only thing they could add would be the qualifying distance in events like the 1500 when a mile qualifying time is also acceptable.

Editor's note

From The Guardian, Lynsey Sharp: “Games have been played all week by individuals and also by our governing body, which is meant to be unbiased...”

Interesting to hear this from Sharp. There was quite a bit of controversy over her selection for the Olympic team in 2012. She won the trials, and got Silver at the European Championships, but didn't have the A standard. She was picked ahead of four other women who had the A standard. Because Sharp didn't have the A standard, none of the others got to go under IOC rules, which said you could only have one entry if that entry didn't have the A standard.

After all that, she bombed at the Games, finishing next-to-last in her heat.

deja vu all over again wrote:

Interesting to hear this from Sharp. There was quite a bit of controversy over her selection for the Olympic team in 2012. She won the trials, and got Silver at the European Championships, but didn't have the A standard. She was picked ahead of four other women who had the A standard. Because Sharp didn't have the A standard, none of the others got to go under IOC rules, which said you could only have one entry if that entry didn't have the A standard.

I don't agree with that choice, but it was done by selectors, not by her.

They need to have better policies, and to stick by their guidelines.

In this case, the rules were clear, and apparently violated.

Kenster5000 wrote:

And this is why track and field is still a bush league sport. Lynsey Sharp gets dusted in a fair race where everyone started at the same time and 800m were run, and it's now a "rules" thing. I don't care if she signed up a half hour before the race, if she has the entry fee and the proper credentials, she gets to run.

Nobody should be forced to "sign up" for a race. Or to have to pay an entry fee, or have "proper credentials"... all of these are obstacles to the proletariat activity in achieving its superiority.

Kenster5000 wrote:

And this is why track and field is still a bush league sport. Lynsey Sharp gets dusted in a fair race where everyone started at the same time and 800m were run, and it's now a "rules" thing. I don't care if she signed up a half hour before the race, if she has the entry fee and the proper credentials, she gets to run.

This! Maybe they shouldn’t have gotten crushed by Muir then. Plus Sharp was all the way down in 5th in this race. She has no right to complain; even if Muir wasn’t in the race Sharp wouldn’t have made the Euro team anyways. She’s salty a 1500/5k runner is better than she is at her main event. Get over it, stop being a drama queen, and respect your competition.

whiningsharp wrote:

Wasn’t Lynsey Sharp the one who was whining about Caster Semenya a couple of years ago- perhaps if she focussed some of this energy into her training rather than criticising everything else for her performances she might run faster

what an ignorant post. Do you think not complaining about Semenya is going to help the women run 1:53 to beat here? Hell no.

deja vu all over again wrote:

Interesting to hear this from Sharp. There was quite a bit of controversy over her selection for the Olympic team in 2012. She won the trials, and got Silver at the European Championships, but didn't have the A standard. She was picked ahead of four other women who had the A standard. Because Sharp didn't have the A standard, none of the others got to go under IOC rules, which said you could only have one entry if that entry didn't have the A standard.

After all that, she bombed at the Games, finishing next-to-last in her heat.

Yeah but you left out the part about how she then also made the 2016 Olympcis and ran 1:57 and got 6th in the final. UK Athletics would view 2012 as a good learning experience for 2016. The women who didn't get to go in 2012 were never Olympic finalist potential.

This undermines Sharp's legitimate criticism of having hormonal men in the 800m, because here she is just whining that someone better got into the race.

Brit Babies wrote:

Bunch of pampered British babies. Why complain publicly about the best Brit runner, Laura Muir. All it will do is cause trouble down the road. Brit press is hard on runners.

right, the point of rules are not for the sake of rules. rules are there to help the situation, not mess it up.

whatever the case, the championship is meant to have the top runners compete, and who did what paperwork is immaterial since the athlete in question won the race.

whatever the rules of for paperwork application are, you don't bar the favorite from the championships. duh.

rojo wrote:

More from Sharp: “You can call me bitter but I play by the rules and I came here prepared based on what I knew the field was going to be and that was different on Saturday morning.

“Throughout the whole week we prepare for what we know our competitors are going to be. To throw something else in the mix overnight is playing a game. It wasn’t fair.”

I assume she means that she and her coach prepared a race plan based on who else was running, and that they might have prepared a different plan if they'd known Muir was running.

I could see that having someone show up at the last minute could upset race planning. Thoughts?

Seriously Sharp just needs to shut the hell up. She will never get to the standard of Laura.

I can fully understand this complaint.

Unbeknownest to hobby LRC posters, at the Elite level, at least 95% of the game is mental in preparation. Wise sage Sun Tzu already profounded this like five millennia ago - know what you're up against. This dirty tactic of conniving with UK Athletics for special treatment is about as low as you can go, while technically (perhaps) staying within the rules. Just go try running a 100m dash tomorrow if you don't believe me. If Bolt suddenly shows up, your esteem will wallow, and the performance goes down. See, it's all in the mind.

Sharpe is an embarrassment to Scotland. Always has something to moan about. This is classic, blaming the presence of one athlete for her not even being close to the podium. Was she 4th? Err no. The fact is she is off form and not team material this season.

Mind over matter.. wrote:

I can fully understand this complaint.

Unbeknownest to hobby LRC posters, at the Elite level, at least 95% of the game is mental in preparation. Wise sage Sun Tzu already profounded this like five millennia ago - know what you're up against. This dirty tactic of conniving with UK Athletics for special treatment is about as low as you can go, while technically (perhaps) staying within the rules. Just go try running a 100m dash tomorrow if you don't believe me. If Bolt suddenly shows up, your esteem will wallow, and the performance goes down. See, it's all in the mind.

I agree 110%. We are trying to determine running ability, not who can play the psychological games the best.... what next, are we going to allow hypnosis arts and Evil Eye tactics?

Mind over matter.. wrote:

I can fully understand this complaint.

Unbeknownest to hobby LRC posters, at the Elite level, at least 95% of the game is mental in preparation. Wise sage Sun Tzu already profounded this like five millennia ago - know what you're up against. This dirty tactic of conniving with UK Athletics for special treatment is about as low as you can go, while technically (perhaps) staying within the rules. Just go try running a 100m dash tomorrow if you don't believe me. If Bolt suddenly shows up, your esteem will wallow, and the performance goes down. See, it's all in the mind.

Pleaser, Sharp came 5th or 6th. If Muir wasn't there she still doesn't go to the trials. She is not in good form and the other girls are. No tactics were going to let her win that race.

I watched her compete the other day and she ran in the men's race, towed around the whole way to something like 2:00.5 whilst Alex Bell won a lower key BMC with 1:59 running the entire 2nd lap solo.

British fans are much happier with the two selected, Muir and Oskan-Clarke have chances at medals.

And if Muir wasn't there then Sharp still won't have gone. Muir's in fine form and will probably win.

People forget that the rules are far more flexible in the UK, it's not like the US trials at all. Often our top athletes don't even go to the trials knowing they will get picked anyway.

Muir didn't do the 1500 at all but she will still likely do that in Berlin.

Somebody with access to the call room has told me that 800m start lists where first put out and then changed 30' before the race.... make what you wish of it...

Have you never heard of Semenya? Muir is good, but not 1:54 good imho.

ex-runner wrote:

As a British fan I'm very pleased Muir was entered in the 800 because the 15/5k double isn't possible in Berlin but the 800/1500 is. Muir has a very good chance of winning both.

Can't stomach Lynsey Sharp, could never stand her. But this tops it all ..... absolutely pathetic.