POSTED: April 18th 2011

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NEIL WILSON: Sprinting out front in more ways than one ahead of 2012

THE NEIL WILSON COLUMN / An exclusive, authoritative series from Sports Features Communications

LONDON, Apr 18: So tough is the ‘A’ standard which the IAAF has set to qualify for the London Olympic Games in the men’s high jump that only nine men achieved it during 2010 – and five of those were Russian.

So generous is the ‘A’ standard which the IAAF has set qualify for the Games in the men’s 100 metres that  57 would have been qualified during 2010.

If this were the only difference between the standards set between track and field events, you could accuse me of alighting on an anomaly. But the differences are everywhere.

There were 55 qualifiers for the soft standard of 11.29sec for the women’s 100 metres, and just 16 for the women’s high jump standard of 1.95 metres.  Only 19 qualified last year for the men’s long jump standard of 8.20 metres but 48 for the men’s 5,000 metres.

The differences are so apparent it might be reasonable to believe that the IAAF wishes to promote track at the expense of field, that it has decided that running is what the public wants to see.

But statistics can be made to prove anything. The simple figure of 48 for the men’s 5,000 hides the fact that 30 of those were Kenyan, only three of whom will be eligible for the Olympic Games. Five more were Ethiopian, so in reality only 18 runners eligible were qualified.

In the men’s 10,000 metres, 19 of the 32 who would have qualified during 2010 are Kenyan, and among the others only five nationalities would have qualified for the Games.

Eased standard

There is a similar effect in the women’s 5,000 where 12 of the 39 qualified last year were Kenyans and another 10 Ethiopian, of whom only six could compete in the Games. The IAAF has actually lessened the standard in the event since 2008 because of it.

It is a difficult balance that the sport has to strike. On the one side they need a minimum number for competition while on the other they must, under an agreement with the IOC, keep down overall numbers for athletics.

At the same time, in their own sports’ interest, they must not deprive future generations of a motivation to take up events by setting standards too high.

It is not an enviable role but on this occasion I believe they have it wrong. The men’s high jump  standard of 2.31 metres, the hammer at 78 metres and the triple jump at 17.20 metres, and the women’s long jump of 6.75m and triple jump of 14.30 metres are too demanding to be attractive proposition for  future generations.

None is reasonable when the women’s 100 metres at 11.29sec is so easy. The message it sends is that the easiest way to the Olympic Games is to sprint.

NEIL WILSON reported his first Olympic Games in Munich in 1972. He has since covered another nine summer and nine winter Olympics for various newspapers, including The Independent and the Daily Mail with whom he has worked for the last 19 years as Athletics and Olympic correspondent. He was Britain's Sports Journalist of the Year in 1984 and is the author of seven books

Keywords · Neil Wilson · qualifying · London 2012

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