Following is the latest editorial by Chris Kelsall and originally published on the Flotrack website .

Is American marathon runner John Little of Flagstaff, Arizona completely off his rocker? Is he delusional and possibly suffering from a bout of post marathon illusory psychosis? He just may be! He also may be fully and completely correct with his assertion that Canadian Olympic marathon standards are set too high by the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) and Athletics Canada (AC). Of course John has nothing to lose by saying so when he talks to the Canadian press about his feelings on the subject.

John Little, in not so many words, told the press that he was speaking on behalf of some of his Canadian comrades who he trains with down in Flagstaff. He said this after he finished the ING Ottawa Marathon, Sunday May 25th.

Regardless, Little indicated that Giitah Macharia’s ING Ottawa Marathon time of 2:16:55 last week and Matthew McInnis’ 2:16:59 are good enough to represent Canada in the Beijing Olympics.

Little went on to say, "If you were American or Finnish or Norwegian, he Macharia would go, but the Canadian federation is more interested in making sure that 50 officials go and 50 coaches go. They’ve achieved international Olympic standards, but Canada won’t send them to the Olympics. It’s not about sending officials, but they would rather send no one than send someone at 2:16, which is complete hogwash!

He called the men’s qualifying ‘A’ standard of 2:12:38 ‘ridiculous’.

Let’s clear up one small matter. A runner with the time of 2:16:55 could in theory make the American team for Beijing, if he actually won the US Olympic Trials while no other American had managed the A standard during the qualification period. But that scenario didn’t play out, did it?

For those of you who reside under the proverbial rock, Ryan Hall won the trials in a decisive manner, finishing with a time of 2:09:02. Ritzenheim and Sell were roughly 2 minutes behind, therefore eliminating any need for a 2:16 marathon runner to represent the US in the Beijing Olympics. Canada is getting stronger, but does not benefit from the luxury of having 3 sub 2:12 marathon runners, just yet.

Here is where John’s rocker careens out of control on him. He went on to say, "2:15 to 2:18 will win in Beijing."

As much as I agree that anything can happen in an Olympic marathon, including defrocked priests vigorously tackling athletes, the idea that a 2:15 to 2:18 marathon runner will win Beijing is just crazy talk. A sub 2:08 runner may win Beijing with a finishing time of 2:15 to 2:18 because of severe weather or severe priests. However, a 2:18 marathon runner is unlikely to run 2:18 or better in dire conditions, but yes anything can happen.

Regardless, there goes the credibility factor, too bad, because it was making for such good fodder in the rounds of the general news media.

Did anyone out there notice that Tara Quinn-Smith, not going to Beijing is a bigger crime than any of the aforementioned men? Tara finished fourth in her marathon debut, with a time of 2:33:58. Her race should be all over the greater media. Ok I started it here first, open the floodgates.

Quinn-Smith beat the women’s international ‘A’ standard of 2:37:00 by more than three minutes and the B standard of 2:42 by more than eight during her marathon. However, she did not meet Athletics Canada’s tougher A and B women’s standards of 2:27:35 and 2:31:00 respectively.

Men’s standards:

A+ 2:11:31
A 2:12:38
B 2:14:00

Women’s standards:

A+ 2:27:35
A 2:29:08
B 2:31:00

Marathon:

Qualifying Period - Sept. 1, 2006 to May 25, 2008.
Athletes must achieve ‘A’ Standard in 2006 or 2007 OR ‘A’ Standard after May 26th, 2007.
Standards achieved in 2006 or 2007 require proof of fitness between Mar. 1 & July 06, 2008.
Relays World Top 16 " based on the IAAF qualifying system

In his post race interview, McInnis said, "It’s really too bad because I think there’s four of us who have the minimum international standards. I think any one of us would be able to represent the country well, and you never know what’s going to happen in a marathon.”

I couldn’t agree more with his latter comment (see above re: defrocked priests).

When I asked Greg McMillan of McMillanElite for his thoughts on the subject, he provided more balanced feedback. He offered, “for those of us working with emerging elite runners (and I suspect for most all young, competitive runners), we feel that providing opportunities for athletes to experience international competition is vital to their ability in future championships to compete for medals.”

Greg went on to say something that I have been beating my chest about all along, athletes need international exposure!

I gleamed this from his larger quote, “they usually need one or two exposures to this level of competition before they can perform maximally. In the US, for example, both Meb and Deena were Olympians in 2000 (at 10,000m where few would have suggested that they had any chance of winning a medal) before they won their medals in 2004.

According to Martin Goulet, Chief High Performance Officer with Athletics Canada:

"The A+ standards were established following an analysis of recent World Championships and Olympic Games results as well as a statistical analysis from the past five years in order to reflect what represents - performance wise - a top 12 ranked athlete in the world".

Regarding the above analysis:

Marathons contested at the World Championships, Commonwealth Games and Olympic Games typically do not result in performance times found in marathon races such as London, Berlin, Chicago, Fukuoka, Rotterdam and many others. And anything can and often does happen during the event.

For the 2007 Worlds in Osaka a heat-wave baked the streets of Japan’s second largest city. Marathoners raced in temperatures well over 30 degrees with a relative humidity of 70%. As a result 28 of 87 competitors did not finish the marathon and 2 did not start. 30 could not crack 2:30, 47 could not break 2:20, and the top 9 ran between 2:15 and 2:19. Kenyan, Luke Kibet only managed to run 1 second under 2:16.

Consider the average finish time in Athens Marathon in 2004 was 2:22, 7 minutes slower than Macharia’s Ottawa performance, which was also run in warm temperatures. Paul Tergat who at the time held the world standard for the marathon, with a time of 2:04:55 finished 10th in 2:14, behind Victoria’s Jon Brown who finished 4th in 2:12.

Jon’s qualifying time would not necessarily qualify him for international competition according to Athletics Canada. World record holder (Tergat) ran a time that was not only outside of AC’s A+ standard, but would also not qualify him for the competition in the first place. The 12th place competitor, America’s Alan Culpepper ran a time of 2:15:26.

2006 Manchester Commonwealth Games silver medalist Joshua Chelanga ran 2:12.45, outside of the A+ standard. Stuart Hall of England came in that magical 12th spot with a time of 2:19:53.

So what are they talking about?

McMillan added, “The US had to go back to setting up groups to provide enough support to keep the athletes in the sport and help them rise, over several years, to a high level and that is with more realistic standards set forth by USATF. Maybe Canada will see the same as it begins to set up groups (like the Brooks Marathon Project and the others in BC). Until then, some of us feel that sending emerging elite athletes to championships is an investment in the future, not a waste of funds. Give home-grown athletes a chance to develop. When given the chance, athletes almost always reward the opportunities and investment with great performances in future years.”

Perhaps John Little is completely on his rocker, he just needs to put a helmet on, when he rocks, but rock on anyway John Little!
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Christopher Kelsall is sponsored by Island Runner Footwear, located in Victoria, BC - Check out the store’s site at Island Runner dot ca

When visiting Victoria, rent from Chris’ favorite RV place CampRV

Chris is a member of the Lydiard Foundation

Contact: chriskelsall@flocasts.org