by Stuart Weir
Okay, Thursday, I woke up a hornet’s nest. I received a note (NOT FOR PUBLICATION), where my Senior Writer for Europe, Stuart Weir, thoughtfully took my argument on Coffee With Larry apart, piece by piece.
I came back with another CWL, and then this following piece came.
Well done, Stuart Weir. We agree to disagree, and also, we will be bringing back our weekly conversations, The Athletics Chat!
Please note that while we disagree, we still like each other and do not call each other names. I know that is surprising as I live in North America, but please see that as a positive thing.
GB Team and policy for Budapest
The Great Britain and Northern Ireland team for the 2023 World Athletics Championships has been announced. With some additional athletes to be added, the initial team announcement comprised 51 athletes. Even before the team announcement, there was a lot of noise surrounding team selection and the fact that some athletes had not met GB selection criteria but who were likely to receive a World Athletics invitation, which would be declined by UK Athletics. Even RunBlogRun’s normally sedate and well-balanced editor was found to be writing under emotive headlines like “British Athletics and their 19 athletes who could go to Budapest, but BA may not allow them”.
Let’s start with the facts. To be selected for the GB team for the Worlds, an athlete needed to finish in the first two places at the UK championships and selection trials and have achieved the World Athletics qualification standard. The selectors could add A third athlete to the two automatic selections provided the athlete had the World Athletics qualification standard. (Holding one discretionary place is a sensible approach for a country without the strength in depth of the US, for example, to allow management to select a potential medal-winning athlete who had to miss the trials through injury or whose consistent season’s high performances were not reflected on the day of the trials. It avoids the brutality of the US trials but on the other hand opens the door to controversy, appeals, etc.)
The UKA press release stated the selection philosophy: “The team has been selected to fulfill the policy’s aim for these championships; to optimize medal success and the number of top eight placings. The full team will be finalized once UK Athletics has received World Rankings invitations from World Athletics next week. Subject to invites being received, those athletes who have met the UKA qualification standard and demonstrated current form will be selected”.
That UKA would only accept WA invites where the athlete had met the WA qualifying standard – or in some disciplines, a lower GB qualifying standard – was well known and had been announced nearly a year ago.
I have been surprised by the “noise” and the emotive language in the past few days from GB international athletes with comments like “make us feel like the shittest athletes in the world,” “I feel like I am being robbed,” and demands that WA fine federation for not taking up their invitations, an athlete threatening legal action for ‘restraint of trade’ and “they are stealing it from me.”
I have been equally surprised at the sense of entitlement in the above comments. When an athlete has run 16 times in the last 13 months without once achieving WA qualifying standard, surely the athlete has to accept responsibility. I heard a story of one athlete who asked a senior coach why they had not been selected for Budapest and was given the answer: “You are not running fast enough”. That seems to me a fair answer and a good reason!
Reports of athletes offering to pay their own way suggest that an athlete’s club would cover athletes’ costs. Even this fine publication was advocating UKA approaching sponsors. But this is to miss the point completely. It is not about money! It is about strategy. Technical director Stephen Maguire said: “Our selection policy and the selection is very much based on the philosophy of challenging for a final and ultimately winning medals”. That is the criteria, not number, not medals. And I think our philosophy is how are we going to be able to have the best team to represent us at those competitions and unashamedly, with a clear goal of how do we challenge for final positions. I think the selection policy has reflected that, and we have selected a strong team”.
He further explained that UKA had been very open about the policy, which was announced about a year ago and developed after consultation with athletes in focus group meetings and consultation with the Athlete Commission before being approved by the Board.
In a briefing earlier in the year, at which I was not present, the UKA CEO, Jack Buckner, had used the word “ruthless” concerning the possible selection. Maguire defended the policy in different words: “It isn’t just about the ruthless end of things. I’m not too sure, that’s a word I would agree with, but it’s about the appropriateness of the competition for the athletes”.
A team of 50-something is small compared to around 80 at Oregon last year and 115 at the European Championships, and I regret that lack of an entrants in some disciplines: only 1 long-jumper and one high-jumper, no triple jumpers, one thrower, only 3 hurdlers out of a potential 12, only 1 male 200 or 400m runners. But that reflects where GB is currently in those disciplines.
As Maguire said, the gaps in the team “highlights the work that we have to do, particularly in field events. And we do have to invest in field events and look at how we will make sure it’s better next time. A big part of our work moving forward is going to be within coaching and the development of people as well as understanding in some of the weaker events what it takes to win now globally”.
The Great Britain and Northern Ireland team for the 2023 World Athletics Championships (Name, coach the club):
Women
100m:
Dina Asher-Smith (John Blackie, Blackheath & Bromley)
Imani-Lara Lansiquot (Ryan Freckleton, Sutton & District)
Daryll Neita (Marco Airale, Cambridge Harriers)
200m:
Dina Asher-Smith (John Blackie, Blackheath & Bromley)
Daryll Neita (Marco Airale, Cambridge Harriers)
Bianca Williams (Linford Christie, Thames Valley)
400m:
Victoria Ohuruogu (Newham and Essex Beagles)
Ama Pipi (Linford Christie, Enfield & Haringey)
800m:
Isabelle Boffey (Luke Gunn, Enfield & Haringey)
Keely Hodgkinson (Trevor Painter, Leigh)
Jemma Reekie (Jon Bigg, Kilbarchan)
1500m:
Melissa Courtney-Bryant (Rob Denmark, Poole)
Laura Muir (Dundee Hawkhill) *coached by World Class Plan Endurance Performance Manager Steve Vernon and the wider WCP Endurance team at UK Athletics.
Katie Snowden (Stephen Haas, Herne Hill)
5000m:
Megan Keith (Ross Cairns, Inverness)
Amy-Eloise Markovc (Rob Denmark, Wakefield)
10,000m:
Eilish McColgan (Liz Nuttall, Dundee Hawkhill)
Jessica Warner-Judd (Mick Judd, Blackburn)
3000m Steeplechase:
Aimee Pratt (Thomas Dreißigacker, Sale Harriers Manchester)
100m Hurdles:
Cindy Sember (Chris Johnson, Woodford Green Essex Ladies)
400m Hurdles:
Jessie Knight (Marina Armstrong, Windsor Slough Eton & Hounslow)
4x100m Relay:
Dina Asher-Smith (John Blackie, Blackheath & Bromley)
Alyson Bell (Anne Scott, Glasgow Jaguars)
Imani-Lara Lansiquot (Ryan Freckleton, Sutton & District)
Daryll Neita (Marco Airale, Cambridge Harriers)
Asha Phillip (Amy Deem, Newham and Essex Beagles) *subject to fitness.
Annie Tagoe (Vince Anderson, Thames Valley)
Bianca Williams (Linford Christie, Thames Valley)
4x400m Relay:
Amber Anning (Chris Johnson, Brighton & Hove)
Yemi Mary John (Alan James, Woodford Green Essex Ladies)
Jessie Knight (Marina Armstrong, Windsor Slough Eton & Hounslow)
Laviai Nielsen (Phillip Unfried, Enfield and Haringey)
Victoria Ohuruogu (Newham and Essex Beagles)
Ama Pipi (Linford Christie, Enfield & Haringey)
Nicole Yeargin (Boogie Johnson, Pitreavie)
High Jump:
Morgan Lake (Robbie Grabarz, Windsor Slough Eton & Hounslow)
Pole Vault:
Molly Caudery (Stuart Caudery, Thames Valley)
Long Jump:
Jazmin Sawyers (Aston Moore, City of Stoke)
Heptathlon:
Katarina Johnson-Thompson (Aston Moore, Liverpool)
Marathon:
Natasha Cockram (Robert Hawkins, Micky Morris Racing Team)
Men
100m:
Eugene Amo-Dadzie (Steve Fudge, Woodford Green Essex Ladies)
Zharnel Hughes (Glen Mills, Shaftesbury Barnet)
Reece Prescod (Marco Airale, Enfield & Haringey)
200m:
Zharnel Hughes (Glen Mills, Shaftesbury Barnet)
400m:
Matthew Hudson-Smith (Gary Evans, Birchfield)
800m:
Max Burgin (Ian Burgin, Halifax)
Ben Pattison (Dave Ragan, Basingstoke and Mid Hants)
Daniel Rowden (Jon Bigg, Woodford Green & Essex Ladies)
1500m:
Elliot Giles (Jon Bigg, Birchfield)
Neil Gourley (Stephen Haas, Giffnock North)
Josh Kerr (Danny Mackey, Edinburgh)
110m Hurdles:
Tade Ojora (Joanna Hayes, Windsor Slough Eton & Hounslow)
4x100m Relay:
Eugene Amo-Dadzie (Steve Fudge, Woodford Green Essex Ladies)
Jeremiah Azu (Marco Airale, Cardiff)
Jona Efoloko (Clarence Callender, Sale Harriers Manchester)
Adam Gemili (Marco Airale, Blackheath and Bromley)
Zharnel Hughes (Glen Mills, Shaftesbury Barnet)
Reece Prescod (Marco Airale, Enfield & Haringey)
4x400m Relay:
Joe Brier (Matt Elias, Swansea)
Lewis Davey (Trevor Painter, Newham and Essex Beagles)
Charlie Dobson (Benke Blomkvist, Colchester)
Alex Haydock-Wilson (Benke Blomkvist, Windsor Slough Eton and Hounslow)
Matthew Hudson-Smith (Gary Evans, Birchfield)
Rio Mitcham (Leon Baptiste, Birchfield)
Discus:
Lawrence Okoye (Zane Duquemin, Croydon)
Mixed 4x400m Relay:
All athletes involved in the women’s and men’s 4x400m relay squads.
