You trust USATF to form a committee for this more than the current process? Yikes!
You trust USATF to form a committee for this more than the current process? Yikes!
BIG BAD J wrote:
Adding to the entertainment factor is... how awesome is it seeing Hoey and Nuguse on this mini redemption tour, trying to win the DL final and go to Worlds.
The DL owes the US selection system big time because it has added a true story line to the end of the regular season. I think every other country has at least 1 discretionary spot and someone capable of winning the DL final is likely already selected by the nation to go to Worlds.
This year eyes will be glued to the screen seeing if Hoey and Nuguse can pull it off. you can't manufacture drama like this with a QQq system. Everyone watching the spot benefits from competition that maters and the DL final would matter a lot more if every country had a QQQ system.
This is where having a late world championships with the Diamond League finals being on beforehand is really helpful.
Without that lifeline some athletes will run for fast times etc and try to push themselves but others will have the motivation knocked out of them and underperform even further without that main objective available to them. Arguing Mu is a prime example of that.
Mondo going with Sweden is a smart career management decision as he never has to worry about being fit for a set date for an all or nothing National trials.
The IAAF went a long way to protect the top tier of athletes with auto qualification for Diamond League winners and defending world champions.
For every example of how imperfect the US trial system is, there are just as many examples of how other countries selection policies are even worse. Trust me, any time you leave it up to a "selection panel" that try and weigh up form and performances etc, it's an absolute clusterf--k that ends up negatively impacting athletes. Just look at Athletics Australia and how corrupted their system has been by the interests of Nic Bideau wanting to make sure his athletes find their way to the start line of every major event no matter what.
What's the other alternative? If a one off trials is maybe too harsh, and a selection panel will always be open to some form of corruption - what do you do?
The only thing I can think of is to have your own qualification points system similar to what WA has, except you can then completely control the value of points etc. But this is hard too because you don't want to disadvantage athletes that aren't auto DL level starters or that don't have AR's/agents from that elite group that seemingly get everything they want (Wetmore, Flynn, Haas etc). So you could then do it based only on times but then how would you score the US national trials meet which should be the most valuable meet to score at?
So you could have your own qualification system but the way you would value the points I have no idea. I also know that leaving it up to judgement is just as impossible to be fair too. Ultimately it seems to point back to a system that when you are almost guaranteed in 99% of cases that the top 3 at the US champs are so good that they have the auto qualifying mark or are way inside the quota system, you should just keep it simple and select them.