USATF Men's "Standard" - Are we going to have 50+ athletes in each event?!!

Why would the 1500 standard be easier than the mile standard?

Yes, I'm wondering about this as well.

Seriously? You think it's possibly because the 1500 is the race that they ACTUALLY RUN at USATFs? If qualification based on equivalents is allowed, then the equivalents should be harder than the standard for the actual event.

No, that's not what I'm wondering about. I'm wondering why the standard would be 3:45 if it seems likely that 50-75+ people will have hit that time.

"In general, the philosophy is to set the standards so that a maximum of 32 athletes will be entered in the 100, 200, 400 and 100 hurdles, 24 in the 800, 1500, steeplechase and 400 hurdles, 18 in the 5,000, 10,000 and 10km race walk, 18 in all field events and 20 in the heptathlon."

Taken off the site. I know it is in reference to the womens fields, but i think it applies to the mens as well.

Logically, it makes sense that they would simply take all people that hit the standard and fill the field with the top X performances. However, this seems to defeat the purpose of even having standards - why not just have a straight descending order list? Considering the confusion last year, one would hope for a clearly written explanation less than two months out from the championships.

It is way too much to ask USATF to use logic or reasoning. The purpose of the USATF is to keep everyone on their toes and make sure that you never know what is actually going on until the gun goes off. The USATF could make everything simple but that is against the USATF manifest.

I think I could hit that race walk standard.

Why do the women have the two standards but the men just one?

no progidy me wrote:

Why do the women have the two standards but the men just one?

Yes usually it's the men who have the double standard. :-)

What seems even stranger is the ability to adjust standards 45 days out.

While I can see loosening the standards to reach a sufficient field size, can they also tighten the standards to reach a desired number? The latter seems unfair. If I made the time standard and decided to train and not run that event again knowing I had the standard, then all of the sudden I could be out with a change.

There should be language in there for the standard and then if more than the allowable field meets that standard, the top X will be taken.

Example:

Mens 10k has 29:00 qualifying time and a field size of 18.

They will run 2 heats (timed final) with the 18 fastest in the first heat. They will only count the fast heat. Meaning if the 19th seeded time runs faster than the winning time in the "seeded" heat it will NOT have anything to do with the official results.

asdfg wrote:

"In general, the philosophy is to set the standards so that a maximum of 32 athletes will be entered in the 100, 200, 400 and 100 hurdles, 24 in the 800, 1500, steeplechase and 400 hurdles, 18 in the 5,000, 10,000 and 10km race walk, 18 in all field events and 20 in the heptathlon."

Taken off the site. I know it is in reference to the womens fields, but i think it applies to the mens as well.

I don't think it applies to the men as well since there is a statement that clearly says "All Men who hit the Standard...will automatically be included in the event."

Any lawyers out there care to help decipher this language? Perhaps I am misinterpreting "automatically included" in some way (no sarcasm intended)?

Really guys? Someone made a typo:

They left out the "A"

"Anyone meeting THE "A" Standard will be entered in the event."

Nor Cal Runner wrote:

Really guys? Someone made a typo:

They left out the "A"

"Anyone meeting THE "A" Standard will be entered in the event."

really? there's no "A" standard. I don't think it's a typo.

I guess I misunderstood the heading. When I saw that there would be 50+ athletes in each event, I thought,

"Heck, I'm 56. Sign me up!"

Definitely not a typo. If there was, they would have the "A" and "B" Standards listed next to the Women's "A" and "B" Standards.But there's not. There's only one standard.The big problem I see here was mentioned earlier:

luv2run wrote:

What seems even stranger is the ability to adjust standards 45 days out.

While I can see loosening the standards to reach a sufficient field size, can they also tighten the standards to reach a desired number? The latter seems unfair. If I made the time standard and decided to train and not run that event again knowing I had the standard, then all of the sudden I could be out with a change.

anyone else with some insight?

The entire note regarding adjustment of standards reads as follows:

The Sport Committee Chair may adjust the standards, where necessary, forty-five days prior to the competition, based on received entries at that time. Therefore, early submission of an entry close to the standards is advised.

Meeting the standard DOES guarantee you entry. If I run a 28:58 today and submit the time tomorrow I am in. 45 days before they may see that they have a large field and adjust the standard to 28:45. Everyone who has previously submitted times under the 29:01 standard are still in. If my friend ran the same race as me and ran a 28:47 but doesn't submit it before 45 days prior, he's out of luck, as is anyone else who happens to run 28:47 after the standard is adjusted.