Aussie preferential treatment at Diamond Leagues

Bideau athletes. He has connections and generally has his clients race anything anywhere anytime.

I really don't get how Ramsden keeps getting starts, he comes last pretty much every opportunity he gets

To close followers of the sport, it looks like at least two of the Aussies listed will be pacers. Someone has to do it! So that needs to be factored into any math to calculate the average Aussies per distance event.

Would anyone argue about McDonald, Ryan, Davies, Rayner and Batt-Doyle being in the fields as presented for an early season DL?

Of course, the W5000 is not a DL event. The interest in that race may not be that high. So, including that event in the point being made is probably off the mark.

Fair comment about Ramsden.

How many American distance runners wanted to be in those races? For most of the Aussies, it's not much of a journey, especially in time zones, where for Americans this is not the time to be heading to Asia or even Europe, for that matter. Usually a few want to get into European circuit races after Prefontaine in June and then a lot want to do it after U.S. champs or trials before and after World champs or the Olympics, so they will try to get into DL and other Euro races mostly in July until early September.

American distance runners aren't going to interupt training for early DL meets in China. After indoor season fitness checkpoints and a European World indoor championship meet for some, it's not in their best interest. Training has shifted toward the Olympic Trials focus with maybe one or two domestic races which has produced some good marks without all the travel. I cant imagine how those Down Under manage their schedules and are ready to go for Northern Hemisphere timeframes but they've always donr wrll co sidering. What percentage train and live in the northern hemisphere? I was thinking the same thing with them probably doing pace setting duties.

Time zones fair enough, but Sydney to Shanghai is 10.5 hours.

NYC to Shanghai is 15 hours.

More likely its that the Aussies are fit following their nationals so will tend to get 50/50 calls

That’s my point. It’s an unfair connections game yet it has huge implications on Olympics qualifying (these are the fast races where people hit standards or rack up points). He also is winning to bring scrubs that pace the races.

Why are US distance runners so different from US sprinters in this respect? The sprint events out in China are packed with Americans. Is it just because US sprinters are usually the very best so will get appearance fees whereas US distance runners will probably be travelling on their own dime?

first, while it is pro track, there is a points championship, and over time new good faces are incorporated, DL is usually one heat an event, x number slots, and who gets those slots is a promoter choice -- not an objective competition -- and may come down to regional appeal or usual suspect bias. you can have faded to semi or heat level world meet competitiveness and if you're a popular regular with the right agent we will probably see you again. how many years did we see alex wilson?

second, we had a grand total of three US 5k runners score DL points last year, klecker/fisher/kincaid. i thought i heard klecker was hurt. it's then do one of our two other regulars want to fly to china to race. nico young makes sense but he's not turned pro yet and doesn't seem to be racing much since the 10k. maybe the pre meet. or maybe trials/olympics and make a decision after.

third, there are events like the men's sprints and women's 100H where we will load it up. i do think we are emerging as a distance running country and the world may be lagging that success, but it's a small group and they may not have been interested in racing that hard in april.

Appearance fees don't really happen in track unless you're an olympic/world gold medal type of person. The diamond league meets are the top level, top level people will go to them. They don't need to pay someone who is 6th best in the world to show up besides the prize money possibilities.

Not much of a journey? Geography not your strong suit?