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http://www.trackandfieldnews.com/displa ... p?id=32099

T&FN Report: You Think You've Q'd For USATF?

For the first time in many a year USATF has instituted just one standard per event for men hoping to qualify for the Outdoor Championships (June 25-28 in Eugene). That means no "A" and "B" standards, which are still in effect for the women's events, but rather just one mark an athlete needs to reach in the qualifying window (June 27, 2008-June 21, 2009 in most events and January 5, 2008-June 21, 2009 for the 10K, 20K walk and decathlon) in order to qualify.

Some of the men's standards as originally set suggest the potential for huge fields. Take the 1500. Some 60 runners have bettered the 3:45.00 standard just this season.

Or the 10,000. By T&FN's count at least 53 have run faster than the 29:01.00 standard last summer and this year.

Will they be forced to run 10K heats to handle the body count?


Twenty-five men ran the Trials 10K last year. Will the field for this year's Nationals be almost twice as large? (photo: Victah Sailer/PhotoRun.net)

Or will they just tighten the standard mid-season? Would a federation that--since the release of the Project 30 Report--is asking its athletes to be more professional treat those same athletes so cavalierly by resetting the bar without warning? Maybe so.

In fact, USATF recently tightened two field event standards on its website already.

The height high jumpers must clear to qualify for USATF has risen from 7-1 (2.16) to 7-2 1/4 (2.19) and the triple jump Q standard has stretched from 50-8 (15.44) to 52-0 (15.85).

With just a month to go before the Championships, will more athletes who think they've qualified for the meet learn that they have not? If so, how are they going to take the news?

Stay tuned./May 25, 2009/

The men's pole vault is still at 5.50m. My advice to all you 5.50-5.60 guys - ENTER.

There are only two guys entered right now! But if most people enter and they think they have too many entered, they could raise the standard.

If you enter now and your status gets listed as qualified, I would think it would be tough for them to bump you out at the last minute. But if you don't enter and they raise the standard, you could be SOL.

John Chaplin swears he won't make any changes to any more of the qualifying standards...

http://www.trackandfieldnews.com/displa ... p?id=32116

No USATF Q Shocks Ahead, Says John Chaplin

The recent tightening of the men's high jump and triple jump qualifying standards noted in T&FN's report on the single-standard system being used on the men's side for this year's USATF Outdoor Championships do not presage further amendments to standards in other events, according to John Chaplin, chair of the Men's Track & Field Committee responsible for setting the standards.

In a phone interview with T&FN, Chaplin explained that standards for the two jumps were raised 45 days before the Championships in accordance with the qualification protocol agreed upon by his committee.

"I had assured everyone I would only raise standards for one of two reasons: safety or facilities limitations," said Chaplin, who has been instrumental in setting qualification protocols since the early '80s. The former Washington State coach explained that the ’09 Championships meet schedule under which discus and javelin competitions will take place at the same time as the two jumps raised safety concerns for the triple jump and a shortfall of available space for multiple pits in the high jump at Hayward Field.

"There will be no other changes in the standards," Chaplin said. He acknowledged that under the loose standards in effect unusually large fields could in theory enter some events.

"That's what the coaches wanted, a single standard," Chaplin said. "That' what we gave them. In effect, it had to be a B standard because it's impossible to predict ahead of time how many people are going to enter. Historically there has been a huge dropoff in entries in the year after an Olympic Games because of retirements."

Will USATF schedule heats in the men's 10,000 if a high proportion of the 50-plus runners who have met the standard enter? T&FN asked the question rhetorically in our earlier report. What about the 5K? That won't happen either, according to Chaplin.

"Do these standards create problems? Chaplin said. "Yes. Are they insurmountable? No. I'll run A and B sections in the 5K and 10K if I have to."

"Our paradigm," Chaplin explained, is to select three people to represent the U.S. at the World Championships or Olympic Games and to have fields big enough that developing athletes gain experience to aid them for the next major championships Trials.

"If you don't like the paradigm," said the famously blunt Chaplin, "change it."

He added that his personal preference is for a system using A- and B-standards and a pre-announcement of the desired field size that B-standard qualifiers will fill to capacity.

"If we were going to try a single-standard system, which the coaches wanted," Chaplin said, "this was the year to do it because in 2010 [with no global championships qualifying at issue] a lot of athletes will skip the meet and we won't have any idea where the standards should be set for the next time." /May 26, 2009/