All 3 of the women that placed in top 15 that started in the mass start were turned down by the BAA for elite status. I'm sure all the women knew going into the race that they weren't eligible for any prizes. The hard part I have swallowing is the fact that the BAA limited the race to 46 women being eligible for prize money. Would it have hurt them to put at least the top 100 - 200 times submitted for the women into the elite field. They could give the first 50 women top preference at the start and file the rest in behind them. Most the women that aren't in the top 20 times would be just drafting off the best anyways. Ultimately starting in the mass start does have it advantages, but it also has its disadvantages as well. Depending on which wave/section of each wave could force someone to run slower as well especially the first few miles. My guess is that having to go around the slower runners and weaving in and out of thousands of people could also have had an adverse effect. The women's race was slow from the start and I'm sure the women could have just drafted off the top 30 in the elite group during that race just as easy as they drafted off the men coming out of the first wave. I believe the splits of the elite group and Jessica Chicester were within a minute of each other at the half way point. To be honest one of the reasons Sarah Sellers probably placed so high was probably for the exact same reasons Jessica Chichester and the rest did as well. They are just people that race good in crappy conditions. I'm not saying the money should be awarded because they all were aware of the rules ahead of time. But ultimately because the BAA is too strict about their elite status they took that opportunity away from those women. They wouldn't have had a gripe if they never applied for elite status, but because those women did and were turned down the BAA brought this issue on themselves. It's an easy fix, just let more women into the elite field. An extra 100 women wouldn't do any damage to the race. The race women's overall winner would still have finished in the same time.