You have it easy in Canada if you can go with a B Standard. In New Zealand, the selectors decided you had to have the A Standard and then they made an even tougher standard than A Standard for the Marathon. Plus they said they would consider 'other' criteria (performances in past races, etc).
The result was that one male and one female marathon runner were not selected even though they had met Athletics New Zealand's tougher than A Standard requirement.
The woman - Lisa Hunter-Galvin - who had run 2:30:40, appealed to the NZ Sports Tribunal and now is going to Beijing. The guy - Mike Aish - who had 2x A Standard times, didn't appeal and won't be part of the 2008 NZ Olympic team.
While I'm sympathetic about Eric, it doesn't really seem that he did what was needed.
Of course the way he was 'told' about it was pretty bad.