UK Outdoor August 2019

[RunUnlimited]

There are also some serial no-hopers who cause a groan when they finish first two at the Trials.

Like when I visibly groaned when Learmonth came top 2 in the 800m on Sunday....

As for the main point, congrats for Pratt for making the standard after trying multiple times this season and getting really close on several occasions. I'm glad that she'll go to Doha, and hope that she performs to her best while out there.

[camerajuan]

Anyone who runs the QT should be going. No question about it. What's the point of setting those targets if we don't send people who attain them?

[PartTimeRunner]

Echo a lot of what has been said above. Running those types of times and getting to compete in a World Championship could be the pinnacle of some athletes careers. It is, regardless of what some would have you believe, a fantastic achievement in itself just to run the standard and make the team.

Take as many athletes who have the standard as possible.

[Runner88]

And for good measure Aimee Pratt is still only 21 (22 by the end of the champs in Doha) and this would be her first senior vest. Grab that experience and see how she develops over the next few years.

[RunUnlimited]

And for good measure Aimee Pratt is still only 21 (22 by the end of the champs in Doha) and this would be her first senior vest. Grab that experience and see how she develops over the next few years.

Indeed... A certain poster is treating Pratt as is she was a Kirsty Law/Jade Lalley type who barely scrapped standards for years, get to the championship, then usually go out in qualifying by under-performing hugely. This is Pratt's first senior international vest. We should be wishing her well and seeing how she does in Doha, not castigating her for being almost certainly an also-ran in an event that Britain have *never* been strong at (though should really be doing better considering the depth of middle distance talent we have currently).

[frankie cahill]

Well I for one think it's brilliant. She's still only 21 and there should hopefully be plenty of room for improvement. There are obviously lots of examples to the contrary, but distance runners tend to improve as they get older and her youth plus 24 year old Elizabeth Bird could finally give us a bit of cautious optimism in the steeplechase. Does anyone know when the last time was that we had three female entrants in the steeple in a major comp? ( whoops. that is assuming she gets selected!)

[subhayogam]

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[Sovietvest]

I think there are two sides to this.
Firstly Athletics is an individual sport, a largely selfish sport, where the improving athlete achieving a PB or personal goal deserves congratulation. Good for her. I hope she goes on to prove philipo wrong.
But Secondly when they are selected to represent GB at a Championships athletes have responsibility to the team and to the nation. Pompous maybe but true.
Quite often we see athletes whose only interest seems to be getting onto a team and then they serve up a below par effort with no excuses when they get there.
There are also some serial no-hopers who cause a groan when they finish first two at the Trials.

Some below par performances at Champs come from athletes who have had to peak early just to get the standard. How many athletes pull on their national vest and give less than their very best? Even at the bottom rung of club athletics, where I lurk, I rarely see athletes failing to give their all. I wonder how many people who question the commitment or motivation of our athletes (to be clear this comment does not apply to Laps, who is fair-minded) have put on a pair of spikes recently?

[Sovietvest]

Actually, having written that Laps is fair-minded, I re-read his serial no hopers comment.

[treadwater1]

Well done to Scott Lincoln who launched a big PB earlier- 20.39

[sidelined]

Laps, if an athlete has made massive improvements during the season and really pushed themselves to make the qualifying standard for the first time I don't think it's surprising if they then don't improve on that performance again in their first senior champs. I hope Aimee Pratt will have a good experience and build on it next season.

[RunUnlimited]

Well done to Scott Lincoln who launched a big PB earlier- 20.39

Well will you look at that.... If I'm not mistaken that's the longest shot put outdoors by a British male shot putter since Mark Edwards (ugh!) threw 20.88m back in 2008. (Carl Myerscough, another drugs cheat, did throw 20.44m indoors at the 2010 World Indoors).

Well done to Lincoln! He becomes just the 8th Brit in athletics history to go beyond the 20 meter barrier.

[carterhatch]

It is indeed splendid news to wake up to; well done Scott. I took a glance at power of ten stats for shot put and what really struck me was the deviation between the UK 10 target (16.50m) and the World QT (20.70m) I haven't calculated this for all events but surely this is wider than most... Scott's throw is just outside the QT, but there are few more deserving discretionary places I can think of, is there a possibility of an IAAF invite?

[Occasional Hope]

Well done to both Aimee Pratt and Scott Lincoln. It looks as if Scott's new mark is not good enough for Doha though - 32 men have the official qualifying distance even discounting more than three per nation, and a few more ahead of Scott: https://www.tilastopaja.com/roadtodoha/index.php Let's hope he can build on this and improve further next season.

[philipo]

Well will you look at that.... If I'm not mistaken that's the longest shot put outdoors by a British male shot putter since Mark Edwards (ugh!) threw 20.88m back in 2008. (Carl Myerscough, another drugs cheat, did throw 20.44m indoors at the 2010 World Indoors).

Well done to Lincoln! He becomes just the 8th Brit in athletics history to go beyond the 20 meter barrier.

good improvement; its needed, cos the standard in SP this season is very high

[Ursus]

Well done to Lincoln, its been coming.

A good achievement, but as Philipo alludes to it is only an entry point to international class. Similar with Hughes with his 80m in the spear.

Still, when was the last time we had 20m SP and 80m JT in the same season?

On the perennial should we send the biggest team possible question, I'm broadly in favour of giving athletes chances, although not blindly, especially as there is only the requirement to meet the qualifying standard once which I've never agreed with. For me, consistency of performance / form should be a bigger factor in selection even if its just a requirement for 2 qualifying standards. Ironically it is for those who don't automatically qualify with one of the round 2 criteria being "Demonstrate, to the satisfaction of the Panel, current form and fitness which suggests they are capable of performing at a level to (or exceeding) their qualification best or season's best (whichever is higher)".

There is a GB athlete who has exceeded their QS once, narrowly, in a massive outlier performance. They didn't finish in the top 2 in the trials (won in a mark way below the QS), but if they had they'd have been on the plane. But they're not and their recent form over months doesn't give them a hope of satisfying the panel.

No system's perfect but surely we can do better than this.