A guy who knows a good amount about track and field wrote me confused about the Olympic Trials "A" standard that German Fernandez ran yesterday.
I figure if he doesn't know what the difference between the Trials "A" standard and the Olympic "A" standard than a lot of you don't either.
The Olympic "A" standard is what we talk about most on LetsRun.com. It's the time you must have run if your country wants to send more than 1 person to the Olympics in an event. So for most events in the US, it's the time you need to run before the end of the Olympic Trials if you want to go to the Olympics. So to go to the Olympics, an athlete needs to have the Olympic "A" standard and finish as one of the top 3 with the "A" standard at the Trials. (For 80-90% of the events this means finish in the top 3 at the Trials as the top people all will have the "A" standard).
The Olympic "A" standard for 1500m is 3:35.50. Fernandez has not run this.
There also is the Olympic Trials "A" standard. It's a time that if you run it no matter what you are into the Olympic Trials. For the 1500m this time is 3:39.00. This is what Fernandez ran under yesterday.
As of today 34 guys have run 3:39.00 or better. Not all of them will run the 1500 at the Trials but USATF wants 30 guys in the field so likely 3:39.00 will be the cutoff for the Trials.
Fernandez run was pretty clutch. The night before he ran 3:39.63 which likely wouldn't have got him in the Trials. Yesterday was the final day to qualify for the Olympic Trails. So German came back a day later and ran 3:37.76.