Here is the statement from Gavin Burren, Abbey Caldwell's coach:
"I would like to make a few things clear from Team Caldwell and just put some perspective on the decision making process that has led to a National Champion (The Trial) with a Qualifier within the Period (Clause 2 and standard practise for the last 10 years) not being Auto selected.
Firstly I would like to recognise the standard of the women’s 1500 and the difficult situation that AA put themselves and the athletes into by changing a policy, not communicating it clearly and communicating with prejudice.
Well done to all athletes that have been selected and in particular the 1500 women’s team that is the strongest team that has ever been selected. Good luck to the athletes, coaches and support teams.
But I will tell my version of events and you can decide what you will.
We won The Trial (I will refer to Nationals as the trial because I think it’s pretty relevant if you read the policy you will note it has hooks back to this terminology in the policy and its philosophy).
I received an email from Nic Bideau my then NELC congratulating me and offering assistance on the 4th of April:
“Hi Gav,
Congratulations on the national title with Abbey in the 1500m. I trust you have a plan in place to allow Abbey to qualify to confirm her automatic selection once she runs the time.
If by some chance you don’t have it organised and need help, let us know and we will try to put something in place.
Regards,”
Nic Bideau
This was CC’d to Andrew Faichney our Head of HP. Clearly at this stage AA HP understood the policy as we did, or did they?
We were also offered a Puma deal so no conflicts here…don’t worry its only tax payer’s money these guys get paid.
Note – two other athletes in this Event Group were in the same situation as Abbey and DID NOT receive similar advice on Auto Qualifying. It was a targeted email to Abbey Caldwell alone.
With this information we targeted a campaign to travel to the USA and race until we achieved the time. This happened the second race in. She declined the option to be a reserve for Premontane if there was a scratching, choosing to return home and train.
We returned home training resumed to prepare for World Championships, a reasonable plan for Australia’s fastest ever 20 year old over 1500m.
Then we were “tipped off’ by an AA employee that maybe Abbey was not auto, he had found out from another AA employee.
I called two AA HP employees that work in the same event space and they both told me categorically that Abbey was selected automatically.
Then the world fell apart when the Head selector confirmed this no auto qualifiaction.
I could say more about how AA scrambled to fix this with band aids and maybe some of you are smart enough to figure this out.
If people didn’t notice in Oceania this is why she ran “under par”.
We appealed. It was not accepted. We feel very prejudiced against and were not given the same playing field as the others. AA saw it differently.
Things need to change in our sport when our body employs people with conflicts of interest we are bound to fail and lose trust. Event coaches that coach and manage and influence would not pass the pub test in other industries let alone in legitimate organisations.
I now after a failed Olympic qualifying spot that also was in my opinion interfered with have little faith in my governing body. I can only begin to wonder how my athlete must feel. Let’s hope at least an apology and reimbursement for the athlete and maybe the Coach.
I know an apology would be a stretch..
But, there is hope everywhere with the support from the people that know and understand.
I want to thank everyone that did support Abbey and her team this year and we look forward to representing Australia at The Commonwealth Games and into the future and hope that everyone get s around Abbey to support her moving forward."