>She failed to impress the selectors in November's Tokyo Marathon, >one of four races designated as trials. Takahashi faded in the last four miles to >finish >second behind Elfenesh Alemu of Ethiopia. >Takahashi skipped Sunday's Nagoya Marathon to concentrate on >training for Athens > >After several hours of deliberation, however, the selectors came up with >a team of three and the damning verdict that Takahashi should have >wrapped up her Tokyo race "more skilfully". > >...the federation picked Reiko Tosa, who won >in Nagoya
What a horrible case of communication between athlete and federation!! And we think the U.S. communicates bad at times. If there were four races designated as Trials, how could she possibly fade in one, skip another and hope to get selected based on merit from a four-year old race NOT designated as one of the four trials? Did the Japanese federation send her misleading signals as to their intentions? One would think if she didn't enter Nagoya she or her coaches must have had pretty clear signals that she was on the team. Lesson learned- never take anything for granted- get it in writing. There may be other factors at work- like people on the selection committee choosing retributive payback against a coach who maybe have crossed them in some way in the past- just guessing at what might be going on here. RT
