You’re all forgetting that indoors counts for rankings, and some meets have ridiculous bonus points. This benefits the US and Europe more than anyone.
For example - winning the 3000 at Millrose gives a massive points score. So American athletes running indoors will get more than enough opportunities to score points without necessarily needing the DL.
And yet, the 3000m is not even run in the Olympics.
Thanks for the info.
In a nutshell, it seems to becoming more and more apparent that the ‘World Rankings’ schtik is based on political fiefdom in setting up meet participants through back door politics.
Go ahead and correct me if I’m wrong. But if you do, you can start with explaining how this year’s Milrose 3000m athletes were selected, and why some were left off the list.
And in your explanation, you can include in the discussion the fact that agent Ray Flynn is the director of the Milrose Games, and that a previous director of the Games sits on the WA Competition Committee.
And yet they were trying to the hit 3:36, 13:21, and 27:45 (the old, old standards), which proves my point.
When Jye Edwards ran the standard in winning the national 1500m championships a couple of years ago, it made for awesome viewing, as his place on the Olympic team was locked in then and there - and everyone knew it.
As far as a spectacle goes, having absolutes in athletics is one of the few remaining things that makes it exciting as a viewer.
The points system is ridiculous, because, as it stands - it's like watching a game of football without knowing the score. No one knows the significance of a performance or how to measure it against another in the moment, and so watching the sport becomes even less dramatic.
I read some of these posts and it is so classic US running commentary. It's not American distance running is too slow but that the standards are too high.
You seem to have missed one of the main points uncovered, which is now, more than ever, selection will hinge upon World Ranking, which will in turn depend upon the ‘politics’ of participating in certain meets.
Now all most of them can do is go for B qualifiers,and hope like mad theyll get selected.B standards are still achievable for really good non doped athletes.Most A standards are only for dopers.
If they are going to use world rankings, then they should just not limit the numbers from each country. Kenya has 27 men in the top 65. They should be able to send them all.
What do you think TV ratings would be for an Olympic 10,000 where 23 of 24 competitors are from East Africa?
Not allowing any NCAA meet to be used for qualifying will have a huge effect on sprints and field events.
It will have zero effect, because everyone top 3 at the trials in those events will break the standard at that very race. Unless I'm missing something.
LRC Olympic standards is a very good read. And the savages are making points too. But I hope with the mens marathon standard lowered and as we see runners chase or hit the standard. It will raise the confidence on the mens side that they do have the talent to compete with the best internationally. This will make the finish of the mens marathon more competitive and interesting.
It's just American times that are too slow rather than the standards being too fast? What non East African countries are there with multiple athletes meeting those standards?
Hardly anyone. No man born in Europe has run 27:00 or faster, AFAIK.
But it's amazing to me that so many commentators don't seem to understand the point behind these super high standards. There are not to replace the old standards, the main qualification route should be via the world ranking (that can be criticized, I am not fond of it either).
Not necessarily. It looks like it is much easier to qualify by world ranking. Hopefully this leads to better daimond league meets, and generally more competitive fields.
Have I missed something here? Hasn't the Diamond League dropped races longer that 3,000 meters? If so, how are people going to get ranked or time qualifiers at those distances?
Well the 3000 at a daimond league counts towards the 5000m rankings. So yes, for the 10,000m only this might be an issue (since 5000m counts towards the 10k but daimond league meets have removed it), but it should be noted that all of XC counts towards the 10k rankings. Hopefully this means we start seeing more people taking XC seriously.
The IOC and World Athletics want the best of the best at the Olympics. No more Eddie the Eagle, no oiled up Tonga guy, and no more aristocratic hobby joggers getting entry because Daddy is the Minister of Sport.
Well imagine if your a coach. Glad AA ran webinar on it last night. As of world rankings on Dec 20 with limit to 3 countries athle I coach is 31st in 10k Need to find about 20 more points hopefully either at World xc or Sound. The challenges.