He Olympic marathon classification system It’s so complicated that even professional athletes don’t understand it. If last-minute changes are added to this complexity, the confusion is total.
This is what happened a few weeks ago when the International Athletics Federation (World Athletics) decided to remove from the final list the 10 athletes who qualified according to the world ranking, to include another 11 according to the ‘universal quota’.
The general quotas These are positions reserved for countries that have not been able to classify any athletes by conventional means (lowest score or world ranking), with the aim of having more National Olympic Committees represented at the Games .
The decision caused surprise and anger among displaced athletes and sparked controversy about fairness and transparency in the classification system.
This Tuesday, after several complaints, World Athletics decided to add 4 additional venues of the 81 already assigned.
New places are granted to Hugo Catrileo (Chili), Elroy Gelant (South Africa), Liam Adams (Australia) and Clayton Jordan Albertson (United States), although the latter will give way to his countryman Leonard Korir for placing third in the United States qualifying events.
In this way, the men’s marathon at the Paris Olympic Games, which will be held on August 10, will have a total 85 athletes, of which 70 enter the lowest score, 11 by universal quota and the remaining 4 by their position in the world ranking.
In the women’s marathon, which will take place on August 11 and will be the closing of the Paris Olympic Games, 95 athletes will compete: 88 are classified according to the minimum score and another 7 according to the universal quota.
Spain will have 3 athletes in each event, the maximum allowed per country. Majida Mayouf, Esther Navarrete and Meritxell Soler will compete in the women’s marathon, while Tariku Novales, Ayad Lamdassem and Yago Rojo They will do it in men’s.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Jason Root, a professional writer working with Today Times Live, the premier news website. I specialize in sports writing, covering the biggest stories in the world of athletics. With an eye for detail and a passion for storytelling, I provide engaging and informative articles that capture the key elements of any event or issue. My work has been featured on numerous respected websites and publications around the world.
