Exclusive: Competitors will see places go to other countries because of UK Athletics’ insistence its own qualifying standards are met
[Image: Jade Lally is due an Olympic invite according to her world ranking but missed the UK’s qualifying standard by 5cm.]
Devastated British athletes have accused the national governing body of “killing” the sport with an Olympic selection policy that will leave Britain turning down available places on the sport’s biggest stage.
Around 10 potential Team GB athletes are set to see places for this summer’s Olympic Games in Paris go to competitors from other countries who are lower than them in their world rankings due to UK Athletics’ policy of only considering invitations based on world rankings if its own qualifying standard is met.
*The Telegraph* can reveal that at least three athletes are planning to instantly retire after being listed as “qualified” by World Athletics but knowing that they have narrowly missed their federation’s deeply controversial standards in events that will otherwise have no Team GB representative.
They include Jade Lally, who is due an Olympic invite according to her world ranking, but missed the UK’s qualifying standard by just 5cm with a discus throw this year of 63.15m that no other British woman has bettered since 1983.
“I have to retire because of British athletics,” Lally said. “I’m proud to be British … but I’m ashamed to represent British Athletics. If you are a British athlete, and have already missed out on a championship, I would 100 per cent encourage anybody to switch to another country if that is an option. I feel like I have wasted a career trying to prove a federation wrong.”
Amelia Campbell, who regained the British shot-put title on Sunday and is also currently listed on World Athletics’ “Road to Paris” website as “qualified by world rankings”, missed UKA’s qualifying standard by just 64cm. Like Lally, she was not notified of any selection by Tuesday’s midday deadline and now wants the British Olympic Association and World Athletics to intervene. “They [UKA] are killing the sport in the UK,” said Campbell. “I should be a two-time Olympian. Instead I’m retiring. I can’t get over the heartbreak any more. I’m honestly devastated.”
[Image: British shot-put champion Amelia Campbell is listed by World Athletics as qualified for the Olympics on world rankings but will not be selected by UK Athletics]
Another national champion planning to retire is Phil Norman, who delivered the performance of his life in winning the trials in Manchester on Sunday with a time that was the best by a Briton for 33 years, and the fastest by a British steeplechaser on home soil. It was, however, an agonising 0.15sec outside the Olympic qualifying standard that had been set by UKA.
Unless there is a dramatic change of policy, UKA will now also overlook his qualification by world ranking and instead send no steeplechaser to Paris next month.
“I think British Athletics just look at this event as, ‘We’ve got no chance of getting a medal, so what is the point of helping these guys out, what is the point of putting any time and effort into at all’,” said Norman.
Zak Seddon, who also narrowly missed the 3000m steeplechase standard despite a personal best this season that puts him ninth on the British all-time list, said: “It makes no sense. You can be good enough for the Olympics but not for Great Britain. I’d love to talk to the people making these calls. We are the ones running our whole careers and then not going to championships that we have earned the right to go to.”
The stated aim of the UKA selection policy is to maximise medals and top-eight finishes.
Jack Buckner, the chief executive, warned last year that there would be a shift in Olympic and World Championships policy with likely smaller teams and a particular focus on what he called the “big hitters”. UK Athletics announced a £3.7 million loss in their most recent accounts but have denied that their policy is related to finances.
The Paris selection policy was first published in July 2023 and part of its rationale was to introduce measurable standards that eliminated more discretionary decisions. In what is a truly global sport of more than 200 affiliated nations, the UKA standard is understood to reflect forecasts of what is needed to reach the top eight of an Olympic event.
The British Olympic athletics team will be announced on Friday, with any appeals currently being heard.
# ‘I’m the best in the country yet I’m losing thousands of pounds trying to qualify for the Games’
**By Jeremy Wilson**
They should follow the US model of having Olympic qualification tournament and if you meet the requirements then you go. First three 100m winners go and if you don’t perform on the day then so long, farewell.
Everything about Olympic qualification is a mess. The requirement in many sports to spread entrants across all contintents meaning you get higher ranked countries from some parts of the world not being able to qualify because there aren’t enough spaces, when lower ranked entrants from elsewhere get in by virtue of having an easier entry pool.
The whole point of the Olympics is to see who’s best.
Can understand both points of view here. It does appear very harsh on those competitors but top level sport is harsh and nobody has a right to funding to compete.
Well, I’m ashamed of my country for listening to utter rubbish like the Torygraph.
I would get it if we had other people already qualified. But to have only one person qualify and decide not to send them seems a bit stupid.
At least we aren’t as bad as r/Netherlands fielding a convicted child rapist in their team
Shit luck for her but nobody can deny that the system the UK uses is very good, we have been massively overachieving for over a decade now so no point in changing tactics now.
Just for your info, some Spanish athletes that didn’t qualify had the exact same type of complain due to the qualification standard from their federation.
All in all they think they deserved the chance to participate in the Olympic games but the qualification standards aren’t about having a particular time or distance jumped to automatically go to the games.
The requirements were known in advance but as usual they complained only now and mainly those who didn’t qualify (or their friends).
What is going on This is disdusting treatment if hardworking athletes
The World: poverty, world war 3 imminent, tyranny, slavery, exploitation.
11 comments
Exclusive: Competitors will see places go to other countries because of UK Athletics’ insistence its own qualifying standards are met
[Image: Jade Lally is due an Olympic invite according to her world ranking but missed the UK’s qualifying standard by 5cm.]
Devastated British athletes have accused the national governing body of “killing” the sport with an Olympic selection policy that will leave Britain turning down available places on the sport’s biggest stage.
Around 10 potential Team GB athletes are set to see places for this summer’s Olympic Games in Paris go to competitors from other countries who are lower than them in their world rankings due to UK Athletics’ policy of only considering invitations based on world rankings if its own qualifying standard is met.
*The Telegraph* can reveal that at least three athletes are planning to instantly retire after being listed as “qualified” by World Athletics but knowing that they have narrowly missed their federation’s deeply controversial standards in events that will otherwise have no Team GB representative.
They include Jade Lally, who is due an Olympic invite according to her world ranking, but missed the UK’s qualifying standard by just 5cm with a discus throw this year of 63.15m that no other British woman has bettered since 1983.
“I have to retire because of British athletics,” Lally said. “I’m proud to be British … but I’m ashamed to represent British Athletics. If you are a British athlete, and have already missed out on a championship, I would 100 per cent encourage anybody to switch to another country if that is an option. I feel like I have wasted a career trying to prove a federation wrong.”
Amelia Campbell, who regained the British shot-put title on Sunday and is also currently listed on World Athletics’ “Road to Paris” website as “qualified by world rankings”, missed UKA’s qualifying standard by just 64cm. Like Lally, she was not notified of any selection by Tuesday’s midday deadline and now wants the British Olympic Association and World Athletics to intervene. “They [UKA] are killing the sport in the UK,” said Campbell. “I should be a two-time Olympian. Instead I’m retiring. I can’t get over the heartbreak any more. I’m honestly devastated.”
[Image: British shot-put champion Amelia Campbell is listed by World Athletics as qualified for the Olympics on world rankings but will not be selected by UK Athletics]
Another national champion planning to retire is Phil Norman, who delivered the performance of his life in winning the trials in Manchester on Sunday with a time that was the best by a Briton for 33 years, and the fastest by a British steeplechaser on home soil. It was, however, an agonising 0.15sec outside the Olympic qualifying standard that had been set by UKA.
Unless there is a dramatic change of policy, UKA will now also overlook his qualification by world ranking and instead send no steeplechaser to Paris next month.
“I think British Athletics just look at this event as, ‘We’ve got no chance of getting a medal, so what is the point of helping these guys out, what is the point of putting any time and effort into at all’,” said Norman.
Zak Seddon, who also narrowly missed the 3000m steeplechase standard despite a personal best this season that puts him ninth on the British all-time list, said: “It makes no sense. You can be good enough for the Olympics but not for Great Britain. I’d love to talk to the people making these calls. We are the ones running our whole careers and then not going to championships that we have earned the right to go to.”
The stated aim of the UKA selection policy is to maximise medals and top-eight finishes.
Jack Buckner, the chief executive, warned last year that there would be a shift in Olympic and World Championships policy with likely smaller teams and a particular focus on what he called the “big hitters”. UK Athletics announced a £3.7 million loss in their most recent accounts but have denied that their policy is related to finances.
The Paris selection policy was first published in July 2023 and part of its rationale was to introduce measurable standards that eliminated more discretionary decisions. In what is a truly global sport of more than 200 affiliated nations, the UKA standard is understood to reflect forecasts of what is needed to reach the top eight of an Olympic event.
The British Olympic athletics team will be announced on Friday, with any appeals currently being heard.
# ‘I’m the best in the country yet I’m losing thousands of pounds trying to qualify for the Games’
**By Jeremy Wilson**
They should follow the US model of having Olympic qualification tournament and if you meet the requirements then you go. First three 100m winners go and if you don’t perform on the day then so long, farewell.
Everything about Olympic qualification is a mess. The requirement in many sports to spread entrants across all contintents meaning you get higher ranked countries from some parts of the world not being able to qualify because there aren’t enough spaces, when lower ranked entrants from elsewhere get in by virtue of having an easier entry pool.
The whole point of the Olympics is to see who’s best.
Can understand both points of view here. It does appear very harsh on those competitors but top level sport is harsh and nobody has a right to funding to compete.
Well, I’m ashamed of my country for listening to utter rubbish like the Torygraph.
I would get it if we had other people already qualified. But to have only one person qualify and decide not to send them seems a bit stupid.
At least we aren’t as bad as r/Netherlands fielding a convicted child rapist in their team
Shit luck for her but nobody can deny that the system the UK uses is very good, we have been massively overachieving for over a decade now so no point in changing tactics now.
Just for your info, some Spanish athletes that didn’t qualify had the exact same type of complain due to the qualification standard from their federation.
All in all they think they deserved the chance to participate in the Olympic games but the qualification standards aren’t about having a particular time or distance jumped to automatically go to the games.
The requirements were known in advance but as usual they complained only now and mainly those who didn’t qualify (or their friends).
What is going on This is disdusting treatment if hardworking athletes
The World: poverty, world war 3 imminent, tyranny, slavery, exploitation.
Olympians: BASKETTBOL