The Australian championships will be held next week in Melbourne, with a bulk of the selections for this year’s world championships to be made immediately after the event.
Athletics Australia’s selection criteria sets the stringent IAAF A-qualifying marks as the necessary standard for automatic selection; The winner of the nationals, if they perform a qualifying performance at the event or did so at the Commonwealth Games, are automatic selections, as is the case if the winner has two qualifying performances since 1 October, 2010.
A similarly strict standard was set by Swimming Australia for their team to the world championships, but relaxed when the final selections were made during the week, giving an extra 11 athletes a ticket to represent the nation. It is understood that the swimming selection panel was lobbied strongly by both the swimmers and coaches associations to relax the standards.
With the world championships in the year prior to the Olympics widely acknowledged as a key indicator of potential success at the Games, Australia may be posed to select one of its smallest pre-Olympic world championship athletics teams since the event’s inception in 1983, depending on the latitude which selectors grant with their discretion.
"We only expect to have 20 'A' qualifiers because those that reach that standard will be truly world-class athletes and we don't have too many of those,” Eric Hollingsworth, Athletics Australia’s high performance manager, told The Australian’s Nicole Jeffery last month.
"For a country of our size, 20 is heaps. I'd be delighted if we had that by the end of the season."
Only 16 athletes individual athletes have to date achieved the qualifying standard within the proscribed period (post 1 October, 2010).
Amongst them, only four in stadia athletes have achieved the qualifying marks twice in their event (Sally Pearson: 100m and 100m hurdles; Mitchell Watt: long jump; Benn Harradine: discus; and Alana Boyd: pole vault). Boyd will miss the national championships due to a knee injury, while Pearson and Harradine, and on form, Watt, should secure automatic selection with victory in Melbourne.
With the national 5000m championships already run and won, Ben St Lawrence is also an automatic selection with his victory being under the qualifying standard.
Reigning world champions Steve Hooker and Dani Samuels are granted wild-card entry by the IAAF, pending the formality of Athletics Australia nominating them for selection. Aside from those seven athletes, only long jumper Fabrice Lapierre and javelin thrower Kim Mickle have recorded a qualifying mark amongst the in stadia athletes.
In out of stadia events, husband and wife team Jared and Claire Tallent have secured their places in the 20km walk with their victories at the Australian 20km road walk championships in Hobart, while Luke Adams (20km & 50km), Adam Rutter (20km), Nathan Deakes (50km), Chris Erickson (50km), Jessica Rothwell and Cheryl Webb have also bettered the qualifying standard in the walks. In the marathon Jeff Hunt and Lisa Weightman have bettered the qualifying standards of 2:12:00 and 2:32:00 respectively, but Collis Birmingham, Michael Shelley and Nikki Chapple are still to compete later in the month in the London Marathon, and there is the possibility of additional selections in the Marathon World Cup event from those who better the relatively tame 2:17:00 and 2:43:00 standards if Australia choses to field a team.
Men’s 4x100m and 4x400m, and a women’s 4x400m team have also reached the qualifying standards required by the IAAF, and may see up to six athletes selected per each squad.
On the basis of those above, presuming the non-selection of Marathon World Cup teams but with the selection of a sextet of athletes in each relay squad, 36 athletes presently could be named in the Australian team for the championship on the basis of having achieved Athletics Australia’s qualifying standard for their event.
However, as with the case of Swimming Australia, Athletics Australia’s selectors do have the discretion to add other athletes to the team, including those who have only reached the IAAF B-qualifier.
Amongst those who have achieved IAAF B-standards within the qualifying period and who will challenge for A-qualifiers before the Athletics Australia imposed cut-off date of 1 August (the IAAF deadline is 15 August), or otherwise expect leniency from the selectors, are two-time world champion Jana Rawlinson (400m hurdles) and 11 other athletes:
- Sean Wroe (400m)
- Lachlan Renshaw (800m)
- Alex Rowe (800m)
- Jeff Riseley (1500m)
- Craig Mottram (5000m)
- Kane Brigg (triple jump)
- Henry Frayne (triple jump)
- Dale Stevenson (shot put)
- Jarrod Bannister (javelin)
- Tamsyn Lewis (400m)
- Lauren Boden (400m hurdles)
Under IAAF rules, one B-qualified athlete can be selected individually or alongside one A-qualified athlete in each event at the world championships. Will athletics follow swimming’s lead and have its selectors exercise their discretion to its full extent?
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* denotes size of 2011 Australian team if all current A-qualified athletes and relay squads are selected |
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