Athletics Kenya's decision yesterday to have a February marathon Olympic Trials is totally absurd

Did you read the article? I'm not opposed to a Trials in February in principal. I'm opposed to announcing a February Trials in mid October when you say the whole point of the Trials is so that athletes will have proper time to get ready for the Olympics. There is less time between now and the Trials than London and the Olympics. THAT MAKES ZERO SENSE.

Then add in the fact that the last 12 Olympic/World Champs all ran a spring marathon.

When did they ever do that? Seriously. WHen did Kenya take the top people from Tokyo/Dubai?

Last time, they picked the winner of Londo (smart choice, he ended up with silver), the two time world champ who had been 6th at London and Moses Mosop (3rd in Rotterdam), leaving off the WR holder Makau and Geoffrey Mutai.

What May or June marathon is worth training for?

I think a February trials would be fine particularly since Kenya is notoriously bad at making selections but only if a) there is more advance notice (people have plans) b) there is prize money c) it's not at altitude.

That's when the US is doing it.

It's fine. It's a little bit short notice but the goal is to perform well at the olympics. Having the trial later could affect the runner's ability to recover and train to compete and win at the olympics.

It's not like anyone's now in the position of "oh no I haven't started training at all yet." They've all been putting in their mileage. I think they'd prefer an earlier trial to give them more time to rest and prepare for the olympics.

It may serve AK better to have a 30km trial. 30km is an IAAF event, so records can be set. Chances of recovering for a spring marathon are better if the athletes want to race.

The problem is not to run 2 marathons in 4 months. The problem is to run one Marathon in Spring (normally London) at 110% of the pressure and as main goal of the season, otherwise a Kenyan can't go in the Team.

This is a situation only Kenyan marathoner have. For example, before London, Tiki Gelana ran very fast in Rotterdam (2:18:58), but without any specific request under the nervous side. Being the criteria adopted by Ethiopians for selecting their team looking at the best times (it was ridiculous to consider, for men, the times of Dubai, leaving Kebede, winner of London, out of the Team...), Tiki knew she could be in the Team running 2:21:30, but didn't have the pressure to beat other Ethiopians having the same goal in the race.

She had pacers, and the only thought was to run fast (the second was the Italian Valeria Straneo, with the National Record of 2:23:44, almost 5 minutes behind).

In the past, for example, Stefano Baldini Always ran London, also when won Olympics, and also the second time he won bronze medal in WCh (2003). But the situation was completely different : he ran at 80% of his shape, using London as "passage" in his plan, with good results (his first 5 personal performances are all in London, and never he was at the top of his personal shape), but without using both during the preparation and the competition too many nervous energies.

If you are a Kenyan, the situation is completely different. You need to be in the best shape of your life for beating the other Kenyans, and the situation of 2012 was very clear.

That year. there is no doubt Wilson Kipsang and Mary Keitany were by far strongest than all the other Marathon runners in the World. However, they were not able to recover the same shape : I remember that, two months after London, in spite of trying their best with full focus on Olympics, they were not able to run in training close the times used before London. This happened not with Wilson and Mary only, but for Edna Kiplagat and Emmanuel Mutai, too. Only Priscah Jeptoo had a good shape, probably because she didn't have too much pressure before London, not having as priority in her mind to compete for being selected, but only for running at her best, and Abel Kirui was at 90% of his shape, after a bad London for typhus problems.

The problem is clear : normally, athletes running at 100% of their shape in London don't have time for recovering the nervous energies they need for preparing Olympics at top level.

On the other side, among these athletes, the best specialists go between 100,000 and 400,000 USD of appearance for starting, their managers sign sontracts already 6-8 months before, and it's difficult to say them "don't run in London".

The situation of Kenyans is that they have so much deep level, that the number 6 or 8, well motivated and properly prepared, can win a medal in Olympics better than the winner of London, if Kenya uses a dry selection at the end of April.

So, I understand the position of AK : they ask to the best runners "Are you interested to run Olympics ? If yes, you can't run any Marathon after the end of February", and the athletes can chose.

But I think one thing can be bettered : the deadline (moving from half of February till the end, for including Tokyo, that is a Major and can be used for winning the jackpot by some athlete),

And, of course, if this rule was released immediately after WCh, at the beginning of September, for athletes and managers the situation could be easier, and also for the organisers of the top Marathons.

Primo Numero Uno wrote:

The real problem here is the structure of marathoning for Olympics. Because elite marathoners can do so few races and depend on those races for payday's asking them to forfeit a payday for trials and then possible another for the Olympics is ridiculous.

Its time that IAAF recognized the marathon does not fit the same mold as the other events. They should do something along the lines of guaranteeing the top 20 or 30 marathoners in the world entry to the Olympic marathon regardless of how many of each nationality it puts in the field.

There is no way the majority of marathoners aren't going to lose financially with a trials system given you can only run 2 to 3 marathons at a high level each year.

I agree. There definitely needs to be a better system than the current one.

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I just got a google ad instead of the article, unless that was it.