Olympic marathon trials qualifier moved from 2:19:00 to 2:11:30

San Diego Hobby Jogger wrote:

Richard piano wrote:

I'm hoping it will push more Americans into running Fukuoka. A marathon no American has won since Bill Rodgers. Such a shame since it is one of the best marathons from a historical point of view.

Meb is American and won recently. He has lived here since age 12

Meb did not win the Fukuoka Marathon

guy who remembers meb winning fukuoka wrote:

San Diego Hobby Jogger wrote:

Meb is American and won recently. He has lived here since age 12

Yeah. How could anyone forget the time Meb won Fukuoka? It was all over the news.

POTD

I can't see what problem is being fixed, but "doing stuff" is always a good way to justify your salary.

It basically just narrows the field to a handful of East African nations and a token runner from the other countries. Here are the number of qualifiers by continent not named Africa thus far:

South America - 1 runner from Peru

Oceania - 1 runner from NZ

North America - 1 runner from USA, 2 from Mexico, 1 from Canada

Antarctica - none

Asia - 3 from Japan (more have hit the mark, but only 3 qualify) and 2 from Bahrain

Europe - 14 runners from 9 countries

So basically you would have 22 runners from 16 countries outside of Africa.

Qualification Period: May 1st 2019 - June 29th 2020 ....

maybe the window can be adjusted a bit, but you got two or three seasons to qualify by time.

in the trials, they would have to move the site to most favorable conditions, like altitude for sprints and jumps.

marathon to sea level, or even below,

or just pick the team based on time in 2020....

tricky stuff,

So do you set up the trials to be super fast, even when the actual Olympic Course isn't fast? Many of the complaints about Atlanta's OT course is the hills, but it was designed by the same guy that designed the Tokyo Olympic course. So at least theoretically, the people that win on that course are the best suited to race at Tokyo. But if you turn it into a super fast time trial instead, maybe you still get the best team but maybe you don't.

joedirt wrote:

It basically just narrows the field to a handful of East African nations and a token runner from the other countries. Here are the number of qualifiers by continent not named Africa thus far:

South America - 1 runner from Peru

Oceania - 1 runner from NZ

North America - 1 runner from USA, 2 from Mexico, 1 from Canada

Antarctica - none

Asia - 3 from Japan (more have hit the mark, but only 3 qualify) and 2 from Bahrain

Europe - 14 runners from 9 countries

So basically you would have 22 runners from 16 countries outside of Africa.

*sigh*

No, they will fill up the remaining field size based on rankings.

skyboy wrote:

So do you set up the trials to be super fast, even when the actual Olympic Course isn't fast? Many of the complaints about Atlanta's OT course is the hills, but it was designed by the same guy that designed the Tokyo Olympic course. So at least theoretically, the people that win on that course are the best suited to race at Tokyo. But if you turn it into a super fast time trial instead, maybe you still get the best team but maybe you don't.

You aren't going to get a good team, because we don't have anyone.

longjack wrote:

Qualification Period: May 1st 2019 - June 29th 2020 ....

maybe the window can be adjusted a bit, but you got two or three seasons to qualify by time.

in the trials, they would have to move the site to most favorable conditions, like altitude for sprints and jumps.

marathon to sea level, or even below,

or just pick the team based on time in 2020....

tricky stuff,

*sigh*

The marathon window opened January 1, 2019.

We could move the trials to a fast downhill course, since apparently IAAF doesn't require a record-eligible course, or quietly shrink the Atlanta course to 40k.

reader thee wrote:

joedirt wrote:

It basically just narrows the field to a handful of East African nations and a token runner from the other countries. Here are the number of qualifiers by continent not named Africa thus far:

South America - 1 runner from Peru

Oceania - 1 runner from NZ

North America - 1 runner from USA, 2 from Mexico, 1 from Canada

Antarctica - none

Asia - 3 from Japan (more have hit the mark, but only 3 qualify) and 2 from Bahrain

Europe - 14 runners from 9 countries

So basically you would have 22 runners from 16 countries outside of Africa.

*sigh*

No, they will fill up the remaining field size based on rankings.

Exactly, if the target field size is 80 then that will still be 6 total from Kenya and Ethiopia and 74 from the rest of the world

Have the women's standards changed?

moanswers wrote:

Have the women's standards changed?

As of the writing of this posts, neither the men's nor the women's OT qualifier standards have changed.

Hardloper wrote:

reader thee wrote:

*sigh*

No, they will fill up the remaining field size based on rankings.

Exactly, if the target field size is 80 then that will still be 6 total from Kenya and Ethiopia and 74 from the rest of the world

Which means ya'll are lucky that the other 400 guys in East Africa who can run under 2:10 won't be there. And if you think the Olympic Marathon is some standard of excellence ...

Every country should be allowed SIX (3 women, 3 men) entrants for the marathon, regardless of time. There are no space limits on that start line. Let every country put their BEST people in.

Or if they're going to be anal about what times are supposedly good enough for the Olympics, then they should at least mirror this criteria to the medals and say "many runners do 2:03, 2:04, 2:05 every year in local marathons. So for any runner to achieve an Olympic Gold medal they must run 2:05 or quicker in the race". That highlights how stupid this whole "time criteria" is for a race which has no practical field size limit.

The IOC has put a hard cap of 1900 on Track & Field athletes in the Olympics. If you allow the marathon to be 1200 of those slots (200 countries times 6 athletes [3 men and 3 women]) you would only have 700 spots for every other event. That won’t work.

skyboy wrote:

So do you set up the trials to be super fast, even when the actual Olympic Course isn't fast? Many of the complaints about Atlanta's OT course is the hills, but it was designed by the same guy that designed the Tokyo Olympic course. So at least theoretically, the people that win on that course are the best suited to race at Tokyo. But if you turn it into a super fast time trial instead, maybe you still get the best team but maybe you don't.

2:11 is not super fast.

Maybe you joggers need to pull your finger out.

The US Olympic Trials Q standard has not changed.

Period case closed

We should make qualifying for the USA OT marathon more like Japan's. Fields 20-40 in size are way more compelling and include only those who truly deserve to be contesting a spot on the Olympic team. People who qualify with a 2:18 or 2:37 are like a D3 team that somehow was allowed to play in the NCAA Tournament.