World Indoors Is Less Than A Month Away; Which Americans Have The Standard?

By LetsRun.com
February 29, 2016

For the first time in 29 years, the IAAF World Indoor Championships will be contested on U.S. soil as the Oregon Convention Center in Portland will host the world’s greatest athletes from March 17-20. Given that three of the U.S.’s premier elite groups are based in Oregon, there figure to be plenty of Americans vying for spots on Team USA, which will be determined at the USATF Indoor Championships on March 11-12 (also at the Oregon Convention Center).

To make it onto the team, an athlete must finish top two at USAs and have the IAAF standard. If one or both of the top two finishers at USAs don’t have the standard, USATF will select then consider the third-place finisher and pick the team based on order of finish at USAs until two athletes have met the mark.

It’s important to note that the qualifying window for achieving the standard runs from January 1, 2015 to March 7, 2016. Which means that athletes must achieve the standard prior to USAs in order to compete at Worlds.

Chanelle Price won the U.S.’s sole distance gold two years ago but has yet to post a qualifying mark for this year’s championships

With the IAAF World Indoor Tour concluded and the Millrose Games in the rearview mirror, there aren’t many more chances to hit a qualifier between now and March 7. (Note: marks from oversize tracks cannot be used to qualify in events 400m or longer)

So which Americans have the standard? And which ones still have some work to do? We’ve crunched the numbers for you, and below you will find the complete list of Americans with the standards for World Indoors in the distance events (as of February 29).

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If we were to list every U.S. qualifier in every event so far the lists would be massive so we’ve highlighted only the distance events: the 800, 1500 and 3000.

A full PDF of the IAAF entry guidelines can be found here.

Men’s 800

Men’s 1500

Men’s 3000

Women’s 800

Women’s 1500

Women’s 3000

Two final notes:

• USA Indoors and NCAA Indoors fall on the same weekend. The NCAA/Worlds double is doable for foreign athletes, but impossible for Americans as USA Indoors (in Portland) and NCAA Indoors (in Birmingham, Ala.) will both be held on March 11-12. It’s a shame as several U.S. collegians would have a shot at the U.S. team — for example, Texas A&M’s Donavan Brazier is one of just two Americans with the 800 standard right now. Overall, the competition will be better at World Indoors but that’s not necessarily the case in every event. Back in 2010, World Indoors and NCAA Indoors were on the same weekend. As a result, when Ashton Eaton broke the world record in the heptathlon, he did not earn the title of world champion as he was competing at NCAAs. Likewise, Torrin Lawrence‘s winning time in the NCAA 400 (45.23) was much faster than the winning time at Worlds (45.96).
• The IAAF guidelines state: “If the host country does not have a qualified athlete in an event, it may enter one athlete in this event regardless of any Entry Standard (except the Combined Events).” This shouldn’t be a factor since the U.S. has qualified athletes in all the distance events. But what if Brazier and Berian (the only two U.S. athletes with the men’s 800 standard as of now) skip USAs and no one else gets the standard between now and March 7? Does the U.S. still get to send someone? Or, because Brazier and Berian are “qualified athletes,” does the fact that they have the standard block the U.S. champion from going? Based on our interpretation, it’s the latter, but ultimately we don’t think this rule will come into play.