unnecessary wrote:
They should absolutely honor their word and allow people to run if they have agreed to it. However, I'm not sure why the heck they need 30 entrants to begin with. The field needs to be large enough to ensure that everyone with a legitimate chance of finishing in the top three is included. Do we really need to let 30 people in to accomplish this?
Perhaps you should check previous posts about the last OT to answer your own question.
Also, USATF nats serve other purposes. As a qualifier for World's, we want to simulate as closely as possible World's rounds. if our guys can't run in traffic, we should find it out now instead of after their 1:50 for last in their heat because they couldn't navigate.
Finally, what if one of these guys getting bumped has a 1:44 in him next year. Giving him the experience in heats now will be a benefit to him and the overall strength of our team next year.
Most importantly, however, is not discouraging young runners away from this sport altogether. We fight for athletes with other sports and every time something like this happens, young runners have one less reason to commit to track.