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Sprint star Bolt has no room for error at sudden-death trials
By NEIL WILSON
PUBLISHED: 22:40, 20 June 2012 | UPDATED: 22:40, 20 June 2012
Eighteen of the world's 20 fastest sprinters this year are American or Jamaican. Only six can run in the Olympic Games in London.
And there is no guarantee that one of them will be Usain Bolt, the world's fastest man. Or Yohan Blake, the world champion. Or Tyson Gay, the world's second fastest man.
Those who have paid £725 for a ticket to the 100 metres final in London will hope these stars make it but the Jamaicans and Americans operate the same suicidal sudden-death system of picking their Olympic track and field teams.
Making a racket: Even Bolt's place at London 2012 isn't assured
The first three to cross the line at the trials - the US start today in Eugene, Oregon, the Jamaicans next week - go to the Games. No excuses, no exceptions, not even if your name is Bolt. Fourth is nowhere. And if you stub your toe in the shower on Trials morning, bad luck. Four years hard work and a lifetime of dreams could be down the plughole. The British are more subtle.
The first two finishers at the Aviva Olympic Trials, which begin in Birmingham's Alexander Stadium tomorrow, are guaranteed a place at London.
Then subjectivity replaces objectivity because the third spot will be filled after a discussion behind closed doors among coaches and statisticians.
Sprint kings: Bolt will take on countryman Asafa Powell at the Jamaican trials
The Americans chose teams like this until 1968 when they decided it was too much trouble.
'We were tired of backroom politics,' said Bill Roe, past president of the USA Track and Field. What he meant was the sort of closed debate that led to the world's No 1 taekwondo fighter, Aaron Cook, being left out of this British Olympic team or fencers and triathletes ranked more highly than those chosen not being selected. All are taking legal action.
Their Olympic dreams will be decided in a courtroom not a track, piste or pool. That is what the Jamaicans and Americans avoid.
Appeal: Cook was controversially omitted from the Team GB squad
Their system has its own drawback. The greatest athletes sometimes do not get to compete at the Olympic Games. Veronica Campbell-Brown, the world and Olympic 100m champion, did not win Jamaican selection for the last Olympics. Nor did US world champion Gay in the 200m.
Perhaps the most famous of recent times was world decathlon champion Dan O'Brien, around whom Reebok built a $25million advertising campaign for the 1992 Olympics. He did not make the team because he failed to clear a height in the pole vault at the Trials.
O'Brien did not complain. 'I've always learned more from my failures than from all of my success put together,' he said.
Indeed, the only complaint came from one of the men who did win a place. Runner-up Aric Long said: 'I don't know how good any system is to let someone like Dan O'Brien not compete in the Olympic Games.'
O'Brien was in good company in 1992. Three other world champions failed to make the US team in their premier events, including Carl Lewis, who would have been defending the Olympic 100m title.
O'Brien came back in 1996 to win Olympic gold, just as triple jump great Mike Conley did in 1992. He missed the team in 1988 when an official judged his shorts to have snagged the sand as he landed his best jump, costing him the three inches that would have won him a place.
Conley complained bitterly at the decision but not at a system that brooks no argument.
When Charles van Commenee and his selection panel sit down behind closed doors on July 2 to choose their 'discretionary' places in Britain's team, fourth may prove to be somewhere. And the competition that should have ended at the finish line may end up at a judge's bench
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/oly...#ixzz1yPpML0t2
PUBLISHED: 22:40, 20 June 2012 | UPDATED: 22:40, 20 June 2012
Eighteen of the world's 20 fastest sprinters this year are American or Jamaican. Only six can run in the Olympic Games in London.
And there is no guarantee that one of them will be Usain Bolt, the world's fastest man. Or Yohan Blake, the world champion. Or Tyson Gay, the world's second fastest man.
Those who have paid £725 for a ticket to the 100 metres final in London will hope these stars make it but the Jamaicans and Americans operate the same suicidal sudden-death system of picking their Olympic track and field teams.
Making a racket: Even Bolt's place at London 2012 isn't assuredThe first three to cross the line at the trials - the US start today in Eugene, Oregon, the Jamaicans next week - go to the Games. No excuses, no exceptions, not even if your name is Bolt. Fourth is nowhere. And if you stub your toe in the shower on Trials morning, bad luck. Four years hard work and a lifetime of dreams could be down the plughole. The British are more subtle.
The first two finishers at the Aviva Olympic Trials, which begin in Birmingham's Alexander Stadium tomorrow, are guaranteed a place at London.
Then subjectivity replaces objectivity because the third spot will be filled after a discussion behind closed doors among coaches and statisticians.
Sprint kings: Bolt will take on countryman Asafa Powell at the Jamaican trialsThe Americans chose teams like this until 1968 when they decided it was too much trouble.
'We were tired of backroom politics,' said Bill Roe, past president of the USA Track and Field. What he meant was the sort of closed debate that led to the world's No 1 taekwondo fighter, Aaron Cook, being left out of this British Olympic team or fencers and triathletes ranked more highly than those chosen not being selected. All are taking legal action.
Their Olympic dreams will be decided in a courtroom not a track, piste or pool. That is what the Jamaicans and Americans avoid.
Appeal: Cook was controversially omitted from the Team GB squadTheir system has its own drawback. The greatest athletes sometimes do not get to compete at the Olympic Games. Veronica Campbell-Brown, the world and Olympic 100m champion, did not win Jamaican selection for the last Olympics. Nor did US world champion Gay in the 200m.
Perhaps the most famous of recent times was world decathlon champion Dan O'Brien, around whom Reebok built a $25million advertising campaign for the 1992 Olympics. He did not make the team because he failed to clear a height in the pole vault at the Trials.
O'Brien did not complain. 'I've always learned more from my failures than from all of my success put together,' he said.
Indeed, the only complaint came from one of the men who did win a place. Runner-up Aric Long said: 'I don't know how good any system is to let someone like Dan O'Brien not compete in the Olympic Games.'
O'Brien was in good company in 1992. Three other world champions failed to make the US team in their premier events, including Carl Lewis, who would have been defending the Olympic 100m title.
O'Brien came back in 1996 to win Olympic gold, just as triple jump great Mike Conley did in 1992. He missed the team in 1988 when an official judged his shorts to have snagged the sand as he landed his best jump, costing him the three inches that would have won him a place.
Conley complained bitterly at the decision but not at a system that brooks no argument.
When Charles van Commenee and his selection panel sit down behind closed doors on July 2 to choose their 'discretionary' places in Britain's team, fourth may prove to be somewhere. And the competition that should have ended at the finish line may end up at a judge's bench
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/oly...#ixzz1yPpML0t2