© Copyright – 2014 – Athletics Illustrated
Athletics Canada (AC) has released their standards for Canadian athletes to qualify for the 2015 IAAF World Track and Field Championships that will take place in Beijing, China from the 22nd to the 30th of August 2015. These requirements are different from those of the International Association of Athletics Federations’ (IAAF) standards as they are reflective of AC’s specific goals, budgeting and performance requirements.
A couple of final caveats to meeting the performance objectives (below) in advance are that the head coach of Athletics Canada, Peter Eriksson reserves the right to deselect an athlete as late as August 10th. Qualifying athletes will also have to prove competitive readiness, even if they have already met the required standard in the required time limits. Additionally, meeting the requirements include also being one of the top-three athletes in Canada for a specific event.
Part of complying to indicating competitive readiness the athlete or their coach must submit a training plan for the period of July 29th to August 30th no later than August 1st.
From July 2nd to July 5th the Canadian Track and Field Championships will take place in Edmonton, Alberta. This event serves as the selection trials for the World Championships, the exceptions are for the marathon distance, 50K Race-walk and the 10,000m event.
The marathon and 50K Race-walk must be performed much earlier than the date of the track and field championships, due to their length and the time it takes to recover fully from the events. Ottawa and Toronto Marathons typically serve as marathon trials or qualification races for Canadians, the two events take place in May and October, respectively.
It is likely that the 10,000m event is exempt from the championships, as Canadians wishing to find a race of this distance will likely find more opportunities with more appropriate competition during the spring outdoor track season.
Some of the standards differ and vary in difficulty from previous championships events, for example there is only one standard, so no A or B-standards. With the marathon the women’s standard is 2:35 and the men’s 2:15. These times are much softer than the London Olympic required performances to qualify for the 2012 London Olympic Games, the men’s standard was 2:11:29 and the women’s was 2:29:55, which also represent an approximate 12.5% difference between men’s and women’s performances. The world records of 2:02:57 and 2:15:25 for men and women, respectively, which represent a 9.7% difference, the former, however, is likely more representative of realistic outcomes.
The women’s 10,000m standard is slightly softer than it was for the Olympic’s where the men’s isn’t at 32:00 versus 31:45 for the women (London Olympics) and 27:45 for the men as an A+ standard for London and 27:45 as the only standard for the worlds. Canada already have at least two male athletes that specialise in the 10,000m and have in the past run faster than 27:45, perhaps likely current performance outcomes were considered. More analysis to follow in a future article.
The qualifying period for these events is as follows:
January 1st, 2014 – May 24th, 2015* Marathon and 50km Race-walk
January 1st, 2014 – July 5th, 2015 20km Race-walks, Combined Events, and 10,000m
January 1st, 2015 – July 5th, 2015 All other events
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