Results of the women's pole vault at the Russian national championships, in Tula, remind of a familiar problem in the way the world championship are organized:
Women's Pole vault 10 August 1 Yelena Belyakova RUS 7.4.76 4.60 PB 2 Svetlana Feofanova RUS 16.7.80 4.60 3 Tatyana Polnova RUS 20.9.79 4.40 3 Yelena Isinbayeva RUS 3.6.82 4.40 5 Anastasiya Ivanova RUS 3.5.79 4.30 6 Yuliya Golubchikova RUS 27.3.83 4.20 7 Natalya Menshinina RUS .74 4.10 PB 8 Anastasiya Kiryanova RUS 26.7.82 4.00 9 Antonina Miller RUS .79 4.00 9 Yekaterina Yashchenko RUS 12.1.82 4.00 (Thanks to Mirko Jalava for posting the results at Tilastopaja.net) Under IAAF WC selection procedures, Russia might send only two of these vaulters to the Paris championships. The obvious problem is that three are the current world leaders. Isinbayeva, has broken the world record this season, with 4.82m. Feofanova is ranked second at 4.73m. Polnova is ranked equal third, with Germany's Yvonne Buschbaum, at 4.70m. Belyakova, a five-time RUS national record holder, 1997-2000, easily exceeds the meet selection A-standard of 4.40m. The Russian team, as announced on the IAAF website, includes Belyakova and Isinbayeva (with Feofanova qualifying as defending champion from Edmonton), but not the third-ranked vaulter in the world. Except for Feofanova's wild card, the world record holder would not qualify. This is something that just shouldn't happen in a meet that calls itself the world championships. As I recall, when the IAAF World Championships were first proposed as an alternative format and supplement to the Olympics, the intention was to bring together the 12 or 16 athletes with the best marks in each event, regardless of nationality. It didn't take long for the organizers to realize that, while this format might have great appeal for confirmed track fans, the possibility of, for example, an all-Kenyan field in the steeplechase, would have far less interest for casual sports watchers (and consumers of television advertising) than the traditional multinational fields of the Olympics. Eligibility reverted to the two-per-nation format, with provision for "wild card" selection of defending champions. I wonder if thought might be given to an alternative that would avoid the unfortunate situation I've described in the women's vault; specifically, with perhaps the five or six athletes with best marks during the qualifying period automatically eligible and then the rest of the fields selected by national representation as at present. Is there a potential problem with this sort of organization that is as bad as the obvious one at present? BTW, what other events present the same problem to the same extent as I've noted for the WPV and men's steeple? Perhaps I'm over-generalizing from these two examples that come readily to mind. Cheers, Roger
