Earlier today, Kebba responded to my post with,
>When did Bruny moan about having to compete at the nationals? This is from
>his post at the IAAF website:
>
>"In the end, I didn't run at the Canadian Championships. Of course I got
>some bad press. Some of the reporters thought that I was faking my injury. I
>really don't understand them. They like controversy. I really didn't like
>the way they treated Donovan Bailey and myself. It seems like whatever we
>try to do to help the sport, our country, to motivate young athletes etc.,
>it's never enough. Some of them are
>always looking for controversy. I am smart enough to separate the serious
>journalists from the rest. I have been running the 100 metres since 1989,
>and this year was the first time I missed my trials because of injury.
>Sometimes I have the impression that people take us for puppies, who can
>entertain no matter what the problem is - just turn up and run fast!"
>
>As for Maurice, I really didn't hear him moaning too much either.
How about "complained" instead of "moaned" about having to compete in their
national meets?
I'm sure that everybody on this list would know Greene's story. He has the
defending champion's bye into the world meet and complained that he
shouldn't have to run in the trials. Faced with the USATF ruling that he
must show up, he ran one heat and withdrew.
Some may not be familiar with Surin's somewhat parallel situation. Although
he did not have a bye into the world's, his argument was that as
demonstrably Canada's best, he should be an automatic team selection.
Athletics Canada didn't buy that, he didn't compete, and now complains that
he should have had a medical exemption. So far, Athletics Canada apparently
hasn't bought that, either. He's not on the current list of team members.
(See <http://www.canoe.ca/AthcanNews/010624_edm.html>.
