Liam Adams, Australia, was quoted 2 days ago as saying that he was told there was a very high possibility he'd get to compete: (updated 2 days ago) Seems to have been correct?
Yes, Korir's coach Scott Simmons told me today that World Athletics added four ranking spots to the field and Korir will be competing in Paris. Will share more information about how/why WA expanded the field when I have it.
4 spots? That's a bit odd to not just let back in all the originals, no? The remaining people who were originally qualified as of a month ago didn't complain loudly enough? I
Liam Adams, Australia, was quoted 2 days ago as saying that he was told there was a very high possibility he'd get to compete: (updated 2 days ago) Seems to have been correct?
The criteria seems confusing, but Adams appears to be correct here.
The way I read it there were 80 spots by time standard, to max 3 per country. Then there were 11 universality places (top ranked athlete for event in countries without entries). On top of that are 4 by world rankings.
As it stands, only 70 runners made the time standard (besides the others who did but their countries already had 3). Add the 11 to that, and then the 4 ---Liam is 4th, or takes the 85th spot. Because only 70 qualified by time, the 80 in that category weren't met.
For Korir, it is more unclear. USATF requires top 3 at trials (their rules). If they apply that then Korir will get Albertson's spot. The next athlete in line is the German Welday who if he had been two rankings higher would actually take Albertson's spot...in which case the US would probably have kept Albertson in.
Liam Adams, Australia, was quoted 2 days ago as saying that he was told there was a very high possibility he'd get to compete: (updated 2 days ago) Seems to have been correct?
The criteria seems confusing, but Adams appears to be correct here.
The way I read it there were 80 spots by time standard, to max 3 per country. Then there were 11 universality places (top ranked athlete for event in countries without entries). On top of that are 4 by world rankings.
As it stands, only 70 runners made the time standard (besides the others who did but their countries already had 3). Add the 11 to that, and then the 4 ---Liam is 4th, or takes the 85th spot. Because only 70 qualified by time, the 80 in that category weren't met.
For Korir, it is more unclear. USATF requires top 3 at trials (their rules). If they apply that then Korir will get Albertson's spot. The next athlete in line is the German Welday who if he had been two rankings higher would actually take Albertson's spot...in which case the US would probably have kept Albertson in.
The US never would have had to keep Albertson in to keep a spot. If they have the 3rd spot, they have the 3rd spot and can give it however they deem fit.
Obvious troll, but if he runs 2:13, he's going to be finishing a lot higher than 38th... 2:13:00 would have been 13th at the last Olympics, and this year is a pretty slow course.
4 spots? That's a bit odd to not just let back in all the originals, no? The remaining people who were originally qualified as of a month ago didn't complain loudly enough? I
Ser-Od Bat-Ochir got in through Mongolia's universality spot (to be his 6th Olympic Marathon appearance)
Tachlowini Gabriyesos got in through athlete refugee team
So that leaves 2 Bahrainis Abdi Gelelchu and Abraham Cheroben, 1 of whom will likely (controversially) get since-banned Marius Kimutai's place. And Ilham Özbilen or Turkey also didn't make it for some reason
This post was edited 1 minute after it was posted.
Ser-Od Bat-Ochir got in through Mongolia's universality spot (to be his 6th Olympic Marathon appearance)
Tachlowini Gabriyesos got in through athlete refugee team
So that leaves 2 Bahrainis Abdi Gelelchu and Abraham Cheroben, 1 of whom will likely (controversially) get since-banned Marius Kimutai's place. And Ilham Özbilen or Turkey also didn't make it for some reason
Nice work there with the names, not like these all just roll off the tip of your tongue.
It would be great to hear from governing bodies on what is going through their minds when they come up with these esoteric qualifying criteria. Like, they have meetings where some guy presents this process in a powerpoint presentation and they all nod and say "yes, this makes sense, lets go". I am baffled, this applies to WA, USATF, etc.
4 spots? That's a bit odd to not just let back in all the originals, no? The remaining people who were originally qualified as of a month ago didn't complain loudly enough? I
Hmmm ... Chile, South Africa, USA, and Australia get spots (pretty well resourced countries with track records in athletics). Those who just miss out are two from Brunei, one from Turkey, and one as an Athlete Refugee (living in isreal). Seems questionable that they just chose 4 because of the countries they represent. But also possible they just 4 because that rounds to 85 and they thought 90 (allowing 9 in) was too much.
4 spots? That's a bit odd to not just let back in all the originals, no? The remaining people who were originally qualified as of a month ago didn't complain loudly enough? I
Hmmm ... Chile, South Africa, USA, and Australia get spots (pretty well resourced countries with track records in athletics). Those who just miss out are two from Brunei, one from Turkey, and one as an Athlete Refugee (living in isreal). Seems questionable that they just chose 4 because of the countries they represent. But also possible they just 4 because that rounds to 85 and they thought 90 (allowing 9 in) was too much.
I was looking at that too! I guess they'll just say we negotiated 5 extra beds in the village, this is how we disbursed them.
Seems rough that an actual refugee team athlete who qualified in the conventional way is getting displaced by universality athletes though.
Here are the athletes still missing out (we're missing 2 more to get to the original 80 but I guess the list only goes down this far)
86 2 BRN (bahrain) Abdi Ali GELELCHU Next best by World Rankings 255th - 1185p
87 2 TUR Ilham Tanui ÖZBILEN Next best by World Rankings 266th - 1182p
88 1 ART (athletes refugee team) Tachlowini GABRIYESOS Next best by World Rankings 287th - 1176p
89 3 BRN (bahrain) Abraham CHEROBEN Next best by World Rankings 298th - 1174p
It would be great to hear from governing bodies on what is going through their minds when they come up with these esoteric qualifying criteria. Like, they have meetings where some guy presents this process in a powerpoint presentation and they all nod and say "yes, this makes sense, lets go". I am baffled, this applies to WA, USATF, etc.
Both world ranking and xc were designed to encourage athletes to run more races. With just a Q time, a star could run just once in the window, hit the Q and show up at games. Many countries don't have trials.
The humor of course is it only takes 2 races to get a world ranking, so that really does not require much racing anyway.