Good point, I remember they held them two consecutive years not too long ago but that was a one time deal.
Good point, I remember they held them two consecutive years not too long ago but that was a one time deal.
Things like this are a fundamental reason why USATF just plain sucks and why I will rather use 200 of my hard earned recession dollars to take my son to watch ballooned steroid baseball players way before I will pay 50 bucks to take them to some rinky dink meet like this that for some retarded reason is called a national championship.
Why even have qualifying standards? Why doesn't everyone just submit a personal resume to John Chaplain to gain entry into the meet instead.
Let's have a special past-champions race and invite the entire fraternity back for another nostalgic go-round.
Jon Riley can't go run 14:07 or 8:03 like the rest of them at any point in the last 8 or so weeks? That is absurd. He should be able to run 5200 meters in 14:07 and call it a tempo run. If he would have run a 14:0x at an indoor meet this year that's exactly what it would have called, but when he didn't it's called an appeal. Just go run a freaking time like everyone else. At least A-rod wants to play the game, these pussies can't even go for a tempo run that also happens to be on a track with a camera set up at the finish line.
except he DIDN'T HAVE TO ACCORDING TO THE DAM RULES RETARD.
Yeah I have never understood the reason for even allowing the past champion a bye to the present year's championship? Where else doesn this happen?
The World Series winner doesn't get an automatic bid to the next year's playoffs....same with the NBA, NFL, and pretty much any other sport.
Even in our own sport, the previous year's NCAA champion, provided still in school, doesn't get an auto bid to the NCAA championships or even the NCAA regionals for that matter. If Galen Rupp....wait, bad example.... Sammy Chelenga had the flu the week of the Tyson Meet, I don't think he gets to submit a doctor's excusal and be granted entry into the NCAA 5K.
And, the qualifying standards that are 10 times easier than the NCAA standards make this even more of a joke!
Golf does it all the time
Let's call a spade a spade. There really aren't rules within USATF, just guidelines that serve as rules until the need arises to bend them.
If Galen Rupp finishes 6th at this year's USATF Outdoor Championships in the 10K for some reason, then next year's bylaws will state something like ....
Bylaw 6-107.86 - Any athlete who has previously run for a University that begins with the letter 'O' and ends with 'N' will be granted permission to the entered event. However, that athlete must also posess a logo that closely resembles that of a curved checkmark, have blonde hair, and be wearing only a BreatheRight brand nasal strip at previous year's national championship.