Some news from last weekend’s meetings:
Wee Oh Wee, 2:43! The Women’s USA Olympic Trials qualifying standard has been lowered again, the A standard is now 2:37 and the B standard is 2:43. I lobbied long and hard when I was on the WLDR Executive Committee for these numbers, it just took a couple of years for them to be implemented. The Real Athletes in women’s long distance running always insisted that tougher standards would only compel them to train even harder to achieve them. Now we get to see them do it. Women will also be able to gain a B standard by running a 1:15 half marathon.
The Men’s standards have also been lowered. The new A standard is 2:15 and the B tightened to 2:18. Or a 1:05 half marathon for the B standard.
The qualifying window has also been extended. It will open August of 2013 and close 30 days prior to the Olympic Trials Marathon which has yet to be awarded.
The Club Council welcomes two new Elite Development Club competitions. The Shamrock Shuffle 8K Elite Team Challenge has been officially accepted. Most of you may remember that Team Nebraska contested the event this past April and finished 4th. Don’t look for the competition to get any easier now that it is on the entire nation’s radar. The Tufts 10K will also host a women’s team Challenge, 5 can enter and top 3 score. Both events will provide hotels and travel assistance to qualifying clubs. And it won’t be soft. The 8k will pay out a combined $20,000 in prize purse, nice.
We also agreed to recognize 3 new Elite Development Clubs, New Balance Boston, NJ/NY Track Club, and New Balance Silicon Valley. This brings the total number of EDCs around the country to 26. Have I ever mentioned how proud I am that Team Nebraska was in the freshman class and remains a leader of the program?
6 athletes will be selected for the BUPA/Edinburgh XC World Championships from this weekend’s USA Club Cross Championships in Lexington, KY.
And finally, thanks once again to all of my peers and friends and colleagues gathered last week in Daytona Beach. This has been a particularly difficult year dealing with nuisances and their encouragement and support has been nothing but uplifiting and reinvoigorating.
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