U.Okay. Athletics is below criticism after 19 athletes have been denied the chance to compete on the upcoming World Athletics Championships in Budapest subsequent month, regardless of incomes qualifying via their world rankings.
Based on The Guardian, U.Okay. Athletics has rejected invites despatched by World Athletics to athletes who haven’t met the required qualification commonplace of their respective occasions, however are ranked throughout the prime 50 within the World Athletics rankings. Three years in the past, World Athletics carried out a brand new qualification system that goals to create a fairer choice course of for main championships. The system is designed to pick out half the athletes based mostly on automated qualification requirements and the opposite half based mostly on the place athletes sit within the rankings.
A tragic qualifying story 💔
The 27 12 months outdated sprinter/hurdler Lina Nielsen is a British athlete ranked 2nd at house and twenty seventh on this planet in 400m. She’s getting invite to Budapest however the Federation has denied her that likelihood and rejected it.
What’s your take? pic.twitter.com/IxtUiVz1gE
— Monitor Spice 🌶️ (@trackspice) July 24, 2023
A number of athletes took to social media expressing their frustration and disappointment, since they thought they’d rightfully earned their spots to compete on the world stage.
Lina Nielsen, a British 400m hurdler, expressed her frustration with the choice course of on Instagram: “To know that I’m deemed adequate to go to the world champs however that my federation will say no is world-shattering,” she wrote. “My coronary heart is heavy. I really feel fully cheated by U.Okay. Athletics.”
Nielsen, ranked twenty fifth on this planet this 12 months, is amongst those that will obtain a World Athletics invite based mostly on her world rating. Nevertheless, U.Okay. Athletics plans to reject it, citing her greatest time this summer season as 0.06 seconds outdoors the automated qualification commonplace.
The choice course of has additionally affected British hurdler Joshua Zeller, who completed fifth within the males’s 110m hurdles on the 2022 World Championships in Eugene. Regardless of reaching the world ultimate final 12 months and being ranked inside the highest 30, Zeller’s invitation to the 2023 world championships will likely be rejected for a similar purpose.
“I absolutely comprehend that I didn’t meet the required standards set forth, however this case provides additional disappointment,” wrote Zeller on Instagram. “Going from being a world finalist to not even having the ability to compete on this 12 months’s championships is actually disheartening.”
U.Okay. Athletics has been clear that their new choice course of emphasizes optimizing medal success and securing top-eight placings on the main championships, fairly than sending the very best variety of athletes allowed. Zeller and Nielsen stress that this could not come at the price of denying alternatives to deserving athletes who certified based mostly on world rankings.
The difficulty has sparked discussions concerning the authority and decision-making of nationwide federations, with some athletes even considering authorized motion to problem UK Athletics’ stance.
