Potential disaster at 2014 USA Indoors? Straight 1500 final and there are 22 women, 18 men already in each race

Where did Gugala get the idea that the "b" heat was just an exhibition? If it's a two-section final, results will be combined.

according to a link i found, the polio vaccine is dangerous & the moon landing was faked in a studio in Hollywood. what part of "Finals Section 1:2" and "Finals Section 2:2" do you/Masters/Mackey not understand? now the first Section 1 guys have to go for it & run fast. and if they drop a fast time, Section 2 can't eff around. no "sit & kick" final here!

I do not get the random rules wrote:

According to the link discussing Masters situation, the slow heat is just an exhibition and not even eligible for world team selection

That sucks for the athletes who already have the world qualifier who are put in the slow heat

Wow Unbelievable wrote:

. . . But the Pdf clearly states they;re two-heat finals on a time basis.

So it does. Strange then that the heats are unbalanced (7 in 2, 12 in 2) and that the heat selection is apparently mostly, but not strictly, based on qualifying time.

After reading Masters article, it sounds like this information was given to him in ABQ. I doubt they would make the statements about exhibition race and not eligible for World team if they didn't get the information first hand from the meet organizers.

Well, I doubt even USATF would have a system that says "yeah, you qualified for this Albuquerque meet but there's absolutely no chance anyway whatsoever that you even have a chance to go to world indoors"

Even if it's a two-section final, there's still the question of why Masters is in the slower section even though he had a faster seed time than others accepted into the fast section.

One could only hope this to be true. But I am not going to second guess an athlete who is on site talking to the meet officials

Here is one idea to make this fair for those who got screwed and placed in the slow heat

Have the fast heat go first. That way they will be forced to run an honest pace because If they sit and kick, the slow heat will follow and they can run a fast race to take the win.

But do you really want a championship team decided by time? That's not even used for sprints, unless you're talking relay pool.

it seems they both said in the article that they understood why Rupp would get in, but it was some of the other guys in question. What about the other ones bumped ahead of him like Dan Quigley? Masters also has the auto qualifying time for worlds with his time run indoors last year, so why is he of lower priority to get in when he has the standard and is ranked deservingly high on the descending order list this indoor season? I think that the issue is that an athlete has hit the world standard, qualified for the meet and bought a ticket to come and compete for an opportunity to be on the world team. And we expect other people to take our sport seriously? USATF cant even take itself seriously.

It would be the simplest thing in the world to just list an A and B standard like they do for outdoors and have a plan listed for how they accept entries. Anyone could type it up and post it on there in 10 minutes. Or put an asterisk saying that if there are more qualifiers than listed they reserve the right to break it into a slow section and place athletes in it at their discretion (or financial benefit, whatever the case is for them).

Wow Unbelievable wrote:

Well, I doubt even USATF would have a system that says "yeah, you qualified for this Albuquerque meet but there's absolutely no chance anyway whatsoever that you even have a chance to go to world indoors"

Seriously? I doubt there isn't a situation the USATF couldn't muddle up. And what's usually more entertaining thna the original mess is the response to it. The rule that was generated after the whole Tarmoh/Felix dead-heat debacle is classic.

Hoppefully everything works out for the best.

Does not add up wrote:

Here is one idea to make this fair for those who got screwed and placed in the slow heat

Have the fast heat go first. That way they will be forced to run an honest pace because If they sit and kick, the slow heat will follow and they can run a fast race to take the win.

This^

If Lagat, Rupp, Lomong, Heath, or Leer makes the team in the 3000 and decides not to even run the 1500, could Masters be moved up to the faster heat?

I do not get the random rules wrote:

According to the link discussing Masters situation, the slow heat is just an exhibition and not even eligible for world team selection

That sucks for the athletes who already have the world qualifier who are put in the slow heat

I think Gugala might be wrong. The heat sheets indicate it's a final based on time. "This is a two section final on time basis."

That might make things interesting. The first heat hammers it on the men's side. The guys in the 2nd heat can't then screw around.

I do not get the random rules wrote:

That sucks for the athletes who already have the world qualifier who are put in the slow heat

Seems like putting anyone with the world qualifier in the faster heat would be priority #1, but USATF often does things without any rational thought.

Okay, correct me if I'm wrong here, but Gugala seems to be under the impression that the race in Albuquerque is a mile, and that Masters #7 ranking among the entrants is based on that. But...it's a 1500, is it not?

The common denominator between this latest issue and the same kinds of issues that keep coming up in outdoors is that the USATF never seems to think ahead, come up with a complete set of rules, and publish them on the internet. Instead, there is always some sort of last-minute, shoot-from-the-hip decision by the committee, along with accusations of favoritism or undue influence by certain coaches or sponsors.

It wouldn't be hard to go over all of the selection issues that have arisen in the past, come up with rules that cover those issues, AND LET EVERYONE KNOW IN ADVANCE. For example, to let everyone know what the rule will be if there are more than 12 accepted in the 1500, and let people know how people with auto qualifiers will be ranked if there are different sections.

That way athletes could make plans and fans would know what they are going to see.

If you look at the entry times, it seems likely that USATF just screwed up and put Daniel Quigley into Section 2 instead of Riley Masters. If you swap Masters for Quigley, you now have the 10 fastest qualifying times plus Rupp and Torrence in Section 2, which seems reasonable (although one could argue whether it is the most fair).

Citizen Runner wrote:

USATF seems to be inconsistent though. The argument you make for Rupp is compelling, but Rowbury has a fast outdoor time that applies as a World Indoor qualifier, but USATF apparently didn't use that time to seed her. To avoid controversy, they really need to spell out how they're applying the various routes to qualification and what they're going to do if they have more qualifiers than fit in one heat.

You guys are so retarded. The USATF clearly states that only indoor times can be used to satisfy the time standards. Outdoor times (Rowbury's case) do not satisfy that criteria.

I do not get the random rules wrote:

Of course I think Rupp deserves to get in the fast heat. But for the same reasons that you argue, so does Rowbury.

My question is why the preferential treatment for the two male athletes with NT over the equally qualified female athlete.

Was Rowbury's time run on an indoor track?