Wow Unbelievable wrote:
Canada's not exactly doing anything to promote women's marathoning. Even if she's a 2:31 person, the experience will do Lanni well. And why not just have someone out there wearing the maple leaf, in London, of all places?
Oh brother! Don't go about making this into another women's issue...
The fact of the matter is, both Coolsaet and Wykes got their first international experience in the marathon by running at the World Marathon championships. Lanni and Krista have both been rewarded for their performances by being given that opportunity in 2013 by Athletics Canada. Hopefully this will aid in their development and give them incentive to keep improving and reach their Olympic dreams.
After years and years of 100+ mile weeks, three Canadian men were able to hit Canada's marathon standard (I know Coolsaet runs around 225 km/week). In a recent interview, Lanni stated that, prior to 6 months before Rotterdam, she had never run more than 60 miles in a week! If Lanni shows the kind of determination and persistence that the men have shown and keeps putting in the mileage over the next 4 years, she will be a shoe-in to hit the standard for Rio. The Olympics isn't something that you just decide you're going to qualify for 6 months in advance, they're something that you dream of your whole life and do the necessary work to qualify for and put forth your best effort. The IAAF standards for the marathon are much weaker than the track events (especially on the women's side) and I can understand Athletics Canada insisting that athletes run faster than the IAAF standard. As a percentage of the WR, the Canadian marathon standard of 2:29 is further off (more than 10%) than any other track event 'B' standard.
I'm not a fan of AC using tougher standards than the IAAF but, if ever there was a case to do this, it would be in the marathon and particularly the women's marathon. At any rate, the time to challenge the standards was when they came out, not now, after Wykes had to fly out to Japan and then to Rotterdam to hit AC's tougher standard even though he had already run 2:12 during the qualifying period.