Fair or foul? Karsten Warholm and Marcell Jacobs are denied Diamond League final wildcards as the rules don't allow it

We cant even get most athletes to race regularly on the DL currently and people want to make it even easier for top athletes to race even less??

Rules Are Rules !!! follow the rules .....who gets left out of the field if they are suddenly allowed in

some athlete that has followed the rules

Not quite right about golf. But similar. In many majors you are allowed entry if you are a returning champion. But in track there are only 8 spots, not 150 like in golf. So its harder to argue for these spots.

I think top 7 (or 8 depending on track size) based on daimond league ranking plus one wild card. The wild card goes as follows (1) if the previous years daimond league champion is not in the top 7/8 they get priority for the last spot. (2) If they don't want to run or are already in, then the reigning world/olympic champion takes the spot and (3) if the field still isn't full, then they go for number 8/9 in the rankinds. In my system Jacobs is still out. Wharholm however would still be in.

You awake yet rojo? Let’s hear your thoughts. Or are you too hungover still?

Rules are rules. No exceptions. If the powers that be want to change the rules to let in recent Olympic champions or whatever, then they can, but that would be lame. Finals should be based on who qualifies TODAY for them.

So, FAIR...a million times FAIR. People, including fans, who want exceptions are why we have Karens. In addition to no person being above the law, no person is above being able to skirt the rules to get into a final.

I don't see why it's a "tough one." Just because they are Olympic Champions doesn't give them a right to compete in the Diamond League finals. They didn't meet the criteria to be eligible. It's a slippery slope when you start bending the rules.

The whole point of the Diamond League is to try to increase the viewership of Track & Field. It certainly doesn't help do that to exclude two guys who are defending Olympic champions and both just won the European Championships a couple of weeks ago. It's good to have rules in place, but excluding these two guys is not going to help promote the sport, especially with the finals in Europe. How many fans are going to be scratching their heads wondering why a couple of this years European champions aren't competing at the Diamond League finals?

I think the vast majority of people actually paying to go to this meet as well as the corporate sponsors would be more than happy if WA leadership made room for Warholm and Jacobs, even if it involved breaking the rules a bit. Both being sprinters there will undoubtedly be an empty lane in one of the heats of their respective races, it likely won't effect anyone adding them to the meet.

I would add a second qualifier as a back-up to what you mentioned. In order to capture the best in an event, maybe they should auto-qualify the fastest three athletes on the year. This would allow for injury to a degree.

If an athlete is injured in such a manner that they virtually had no productive season, then I don't believe they should be elevated JUST because they are a market draw. That minimizes the efforts that other athletes are making. But, if an athlete is injured in the year and is also one of the three fastest of the year, they should at least be honored.

Two cents.

I think we can at least agree there are SOME people who seem to be above the law. Or at least manage to be consistently out of arms reach from the law. Therefore, Any athlete named Karen, or the "special" people who are untouchables, they will get a pass if the circumstances are "right".

This would have the opposite effect as intended. If top guys can claim injuries to fast track their way to a DL final, they will race even less on the DL than before.

Look at how terrible the Bye system has become for previous world champions. How many of them ran in their final at USAs, but were okay to run a few weeks later? Holloway, Coleman, Brazier, Ali, Muhammad just off the top of my head either didnt run at all or skipped the final (Varying degrees of injury/ no injury here). Kudos to Noah Lyles btw for running the 200m final at USAs while everyone else took off and he wasn't even the favorite coming in.

Yes that is why we are inviting 1-2 people not 90. Sports aren't really comparable but this will down to is this event just supposed to have the people who scored the most points or the best possible meet. personally I care a lot more about adding a guy who can win the race than someone who had a bunch ofb4ths all year long...

I think you missed the point. Sports like golf and tennis can invite people because the event has a large participation base. Two invites in a field of 90 is 2.2%. Two invites in a field of eight is 25%. The whole concept of a league is you take part in a series of events and then the best at those events go on to the finals. If you start creating exemptions then the concept of the league is undermined. You might as well scrap the Diamond League and go to an "End of Season Invitational Championship".

One of the nice things about the Diamond League is it is different to the standard championships. The Olympics, World Championships, Commonwealth Games are are all one off events. Focus and train for that event maybe two, three, four years in advance. Some athletes disappear from view for a year or more because they are training for the next big one off event. Yes, the events are exciting, no problem with that. But once they are over we go back to complaining how little we see the elites racing.

The Diamond League is different - it requires a season long commitment to racing to get to the finals. If an athlete wants to win it they have to get out and race many times. We should enjoy the fact that it is different rather than push for it to become an "End of Season Invitational Championship".

Finally, because the Diamond League is different it is probable that the athletes who make the final are fully committed to trying to win. If you throw in invites how do you know the invitees will really race hard? It's the end of the season, I really don't want to injure myself, It's a reward for all the hard work I've done this season. I'll accept the free vacation in Switzerland and go for a good tempo run.

In the masters field, about 30 people are invited who have no chance. Thats a large percentage.

As I said it is a perference. I would rather see a race with 4 out of 8 with a chance to win than one with 3/8... You aren't going to be dropping someone with much of a chance to win ..

Invitees race hard cause the prize money for doing well. You can obviously stick performance requirements in if you want.

In reality this is sort of a unique year. Without worlds and EU being set where they were, they both probably would have run a few more events

Rules were set beforehand and followed. If the rules were not followed, you would be justified in being upset.

This is not golf or even the marathon. Adding to the field in those events can be done without displacing someone. Here adding someone means removing someone who got there following the rules.

Should Tom Brady be given a buy into the playoffs because he is Tom Brady? What about the defending superbowl champs?

Should the NBA champion get an automatic placement into the playoffs?

Sports leagues make the rules in order to try to make the regular season and post season profitable and entertaining for fans. Diamond league should do the same.

To clarify my previous comment, there actually won't be heats at the Diamond League finals, only the top 8 in the standings go in both of these events, but the track in Zurich has 9 lanes. Meaning that they could squeeze both of these guys in if they wanted to without bumping someone else out. I think given that it would be worth it to take them both, I mean we're talking about the Olympic Champion, World Record Holder and European Champion in one case and the Olympic Champion, Indoor World Champion and European Champion in the other case.

Rules must be followed. Other guys would feel robbed because they had to travel to a lot of different places to take part of the final, just so they lose the big prize to someone who didn't even follow the rules. Completely demoralizing.

I thought it was a business.

WA can compile a list of certified meets, but there's no reason they should have to make expensive trips to Europe.

"Qualifier" meets as it is now is someone obscure trying to run 3:35 so they'd have an A standard if they get into a champs situation. I'd rather see the faster runners trying to run 3:31 and go straight to the final, as long as someone else doesn't knock them out with a 3:30.

Knowing someone else might knock them out would motivate them to keep going and chase a 3:29.