What about the sport? USATF does it again - They will run three 1500 heats that will eliminate at most 2 people

The USATF's goal is to emulate the Olympics schedule, not to fill the fields, necessarily.

It would be better to have fuller fields.

Ha. I listened to him bitch and moan for 10 minutes yesterday about the size of the women's steeple field. As a former steepler, I can tell you that there was absolutely nothing wrong with the size of the field since they went to 3 rounds. I am sure he thinks that 9:52 is pedestrian, but fortunately he didn't get to have an opinion in this event for this trials.

Weed wrote:

Well, in the words of John Chaplin - "The Olympic Trials are not a god damned all-comers meet!"

No

sanchobaile wrote:

gotta be alysia

OTOH, shouldnt athletes hit the time marks to qualify? its not like they dont have loads of time to do so leading up to an Oly yr

dbfoen wrote:

OTOH, shouldnt athletes hit the time marks to qualify? its not like they dont have loads of time to do so leading up to an Oly yr

Going down the descending list, you are not talking about adding slugs to get to fields of 36. You would be adding men with qualifying times of 3:40 and

women out to 4:13. Those are good competitive times and don't make it an "all-comers" meet.

Also, even at fields of 36, you still aren't including runners as slow as in round 1 of the Olympics. In round 1 of the 2012 Olympics, the slowest times for the men in the 3 heats were 4:05, 3:55, and 3:49, and for the women they were 4:29, 5:05, and 4:18.

Lesley H wrote:

Ha. I listened to him bitch and moan for 10 minutes yesterday about the size of the women's steeple field. As a former steepler, I can tell you that there was absolutely nothing wrong with the size of the field since they went to 3 rounds. I am sure he thinks that 9:52 is pedestrian, but fortunately he didn't get to have an opinion in this event for this trials.

Weed wrote:

Well, in the words of John Chaplin - "The Olympic Trials are not a god damned all-comers meet!"

Since when are there 3 rounds of the steeple here?

Even better simplify the entire thing. Make it an extended weekend meet with straight finals for everything but the 100 & 200

Field of 8 for the 800, 10 for the 1500 and 12 for the 5 & 10.

No more than 10 in any field event.

IF this is really Lesley Higgins just wanted to say I miss seeing you run. Was a fan back in the day.

think it through wrote:

dbfoen wrote:

OTOH, shouldnt athletes hit the time marks to qualify? its not like they dont have loads of time to do so leading up to an Oly yr

Going down the descending list, you are not talking about adding slugs to get to fields of 36. You would be adding men with qualifying times of 3:40 and

women out to 4:13. Those are good competitive times and don't make it an "all-comers" meet.

Also, even at fields of 36, you still aren't including runners as slow as in round 1 of the Olympics. In round 1 of the 2012 Olympics, the slowest times for the men in the 3 heats were 4:05, 3:55, and 3:49, and for the women they were 4:29, 5:05, and 4:18.

Valid points.

Toro- Despite being 20 years ago, 1996 is a Trials I remember well & followed closely, esp the 1500.

Who did you see the biggest threats going in? And was the Holman-McMullen hostility/rivalry as big as the press made it out to be? As a former MAC runner, I thought Mark Dailey would do even better. Dailey was the man in the MAC & some thought he'd be the Olympian eventually. I also thought Kenah was awesome & should've doubled in the 1500.

Curious your thoughts, as you were there. Thanks.

I agree! Bring in 40, this makes the first round relevant. Running a first round to eliminate 2 or 3 runners is totally unnecessary. Why limit the field to 30 and then not add runners to the field for scratches? Come on USATF, use your heads!

They seem to forget that heats are important. When they get to international competition they need to know how to manage themselves over a period of days.

Reducing fields is just convenience.

The other thing to keep in mind is the whole "Growing the Sport" we here about so much.

There is an advantage to fulling filling the fields in a reasonable way as outlined above. Younger folks get into the meet and get some experience with this level of competition so the next time around they are more prepared. There is simply no reason to not have 36 entries in the 1500. We are also talking about differences in time of around ~1.5 sec extending the feel.

It is interesting having just watched the swimming trials, they seem to have 8-11 heats (of mostly 10 per heat) in the prelims. Granted swimming is different in that advancing forward is all based on time and all that. But how great is it that so many younger folks get to experience and gain experience at the US championships.

There truly doesn't seem to be any downside have larger field sizes. Just another way USATF shows it really doesn't care about the athletes or the sport.

Athletes who entered the 1500 only as a safety net should not scratch they should False Start out leaving the races as walkovers for the rest. Then they walk the first 3+ laps waving to the crowd until the 100 to go line. Then some one says go and they sprint in for seeding position.

+1

Lesley H wrote:

No

sanchobaile wrote:

gotta be alysia

Gotta be Max's pet and client, SRR.

The easy answer is to do what golf does, as they need a replacement they go down the list and choose the next available alternate that is on-site. It's really not that difficult.

Dat niqqa wrote:

Usatf can be so frustrating. At least this time when they made a special late addition to the 10K field for an athlete who hasn't hit the qualifer they also let in the athletes between the last qualifier and him.

Eight years ago it was a different Nike athlete in the same boat (Goucher) and they decided to let him in but not the 4 athletes between the last qualifier and him.

So there were 4 dudes who didn't get to run (they all

Flew to meet hoping to get in though) but a guy who ran slower than them did.

Actually, at least one of them drove to Eugene and crashed with me.

I hate USATF but I am with them on this one to some degree. I think you set a field size and let in that amount of athletes but you don't fill in scratches (I will agree that 30 is an odd number).

Here is why: the last folks let into a middle-distance championship field with heats are certainly the most dangerous. They will not make the Olympic team but they can dramatically affect who makes the Olympic team. These folks have no chance except to "go for it" which can really re-shape the heats.

I suppose one could argue that the Olympics are the same way but the A standards of the Olympics--in theory--assure that everyone there is a bona fide contender.