CHENNAI: The International Association of Athletics Federation’s (IAAF) has decided to revert to the old rules of qualifying for next year’s World Championships in Doha. In 2017, the body had announced that ‘World Rankings’, a first of its kind in elite athletics, would decide the qualifying criteria for Doha. They walked back this legislation on Sunday. “After carefully listening to the global athletics community, it is apparent while there is broad support for a new World Ranking system, there is still work to do to give full confidence that the points-based system is equally fair to all athletes and in all regions,” the IAAF said.
As per the proposed law, ‘athletes score points based on a combination of results depending on the level of competition in which the result is achieved. The result is then based on their average score over a certain number of competitions in a defined period of time’. The IAAF took the step because many member associations and athletes did not really understand what they had to do to qualify for the blue riband meets. Current IAAF president Sebastien Coe admitted as much. “We think sticking with the existing qualification system is the best solution (...).
We trust that once everyone understands the World Rankings system they will be confident about its introduction as the qualification system for future championships.” This system placed Indian athletes at risk because most of them were not invited to take part in IAAF’s high-ranking events like the Diamond League. This means that the existing qualification system — entry standards, wild cards, area championships and performance list rankings — will be used to identify athletes eligible to compete in Doha. The u-turn will help Indian athletes because there is more chance of them meeting entry standards and/or winning their events at next year’s Asian Championships at Doha in April.
It’s a well known fact that Indian athletes are one of the best when competing against fellow Asians but struggle when the competition is global. Manjit Singh’s 800m gold at the Asian Games in Jakarta explains this point. He took the tape, clocking 1:46.15. It was the 46th best time in the world but the fifth best among Asians this year. The first? Jinson Johnson’s 1:45.65 at the National Inter State Senior Athletics Championships in Guwahati in June.
It’s equally skewed in shot put, where Tejinderpal Singh Toor won gold in Indonesia. His 20.75m effort was the best in Asia this year but only the 28th best in the world. So Indian athletes can forget about World Rankings and just concentrate on winning their events in Doha in April to book a ticket to the Worlds. An extra point is that most of them are already familiar with entry standards, the other main point of entry for Indians. All an Indian athlete has to do is better the entry standard as laid down by the IAAF in the specified time period — (from March 7 for a few disciplines) September 7, 2018 to midnight of September 6, 2019 — to qualify.