How hard is it to qualify as a marathon runner at the Paris Olympics? It is not only reflected in the high standard line of 2:08:10 for men and 2:26:50 for women.
After the Prague and Copenhagen marathons on May 5, Beijing time, no one could pass the results, and the World Athletics Federation's subsequent "operation" made the attribution of Olympic qualification another roll.
The World Athletics Federation opened the window for some athletes after the end of the achievement window: a total of 11 male and nine female athletes appeared on the roster as "Universality Place".
In the original rules, the original allocation method of the World Athletics Federation was: 80 Olympic marathon qualifications for men and women were distributed according to the ratio of five to five, but the degree of involution of this year's athletes far exceeded expectations:
In the men's marathon, 70 places will be determined by meeting the results, and another 11 people will occupy the general places; On the women's side, the quota places for the event have exceeded the predetermined size of the event, at 88 people, and there are nine universal quota places – meaning that relying on the World Athletics rankings to get a quota place is no longer applicable.
Judging from the current situation, the emergence of universal quotas has a greater impact on the men's marathon.
At the 2016 Olympics, only four men's marathon runners occupied this quota place, and at the Tokyo Olympics there was only one, and this special quota is usually available for all events except obstacle running, 10,000m and decathlon.
By the time of the Paris Olympics, 20 quota places had been used up for the marathon events alone, and the World Athletics Federation explained that most of the general quota places would be reserved for the 100m and marathon events, which also showed the fierce competition between the two events.
Of course, we can also "understand" the hard work of the World Athletics Federation from the perspective of athletes -
Among the 20 runners in the universal quota, the most familiar to Chinese runners is the North Korean national record setter, Han Illong, who is very popular in the Wuxi Marathon, which ran 2:09:42 but could not meet the Olympic standards.
If there are no big surprises, the old acquaintance of the Chinese marathon for nearly two years will make another appearance in Paris.
A similar situation was seen with North Macedonian's Dario Ivanovski, who missed out on a direct finish of just 16 seconds at this year's Seville Marathon.
An even more unique case is the 22-year-old Sudanese Yaseen Abdalla – who doesn't even have an official half-marathon or full-marathon record, according to the World Athletics Federation's official website, and whose longest distance was 10,000 meters during his NCAA representation at the University of Tennessee, with a career-best time of 28:33.38 and holding the Sudanese national record in the 3,000 meters.
There are also those who are disappointed, and the 42-year-old Mongolian veteran Bart Ochir, who also has ties to China, is one of those who has been "squeezed out" of the potential Olympic list, which also means that his dream of participating in the Olympic marathon for the sixth consecutive time since Athens 2004 has been disappointed.
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In contrast, the situation of American Leonard Clear is not much better, originally ranked third in the American selection tournament and can qualify in the top 80 by virtue of the points ranking, but now he may face the embarrassing situation of not being able to meet the standard at the last minute;
Of course, there is still time and uncertainty before the final list is determined, such as Bahrain's Marius Kimutai, who has been banned for three years due to drug bans, and it will be clear whether he will "make room" for the next players because of this.
So far, some countries have announced the list of Olympic marathon runners.
In the last Olympic marathon was crushed in Ethiopia, so far there has been no official announcement of the final marathon lineup, many people are concerned about whether the 42-year-old Bekele can get a ticket, if Paris staged Kipchoge vs Bekele dialogue, it must be countless track and field fans like to see.
The Japanese Marathon Champions Championship has been selected over a period of more than two years, with the final on October 15 last year to determine the quota for the lesser-known runners, Naosei Koyama and Akasaki, who will compete in the Olympic marathon for the second time in a row.
On the women's side, Yuka Suzuki and Ma Ichiyama went straight to each other, and Honan Maeda broke out in Osaka to get the Olympic ticket with a new Asian record.
There are also some well-known runners who are confirmed to play, such as Hassan, the second person in the history of the women's marathon, will she have to balance the marathon and the track race? Dutch record holder and last Olympic silver medallist Abidi will also be in action.
With 88 days to go until the start of the marathon at the Paris Olympics, the runner list will be finalized and more news about the Games, so get ready for this quadrennial feast!