BREAKING bread with some of UK Athletics's powerbrokers in Amsterdam after the European Championships concluded on Sunday, there were a few vociferous bar-room debates over the final few spots on their squad for the Olympic Games. Fun for us. Serious business for them, and those intimately involved. And after a full day of full and frank deliberation, the final 80-strong line-up unveiled yesterday hinted at discussions that surely went back and forth.
Three Scots were included at the last with Mark Dry, Chris Bennett and Laura Whittle increasing the Caledonian contingent to 15, a record tally. The latter, fifth in her European final, was the simplest of additions. The former two among the most complex.
Asked to achieve the hammer throw qualification standard of 77 metres, or to land inside the world’s top 16, each fell marginally – and agonisingly – short. It needed the ultimate show of flexibility to spirit them, and their rival Nick Miller, to Brazil but sense, revealed performance director Neil Black, won out.
“We looked it at under the header of ‘extenuating circumstances’,” he revealed. “Perhaps it was unrealistic to get the guys to achieve qualification. We discussed it in Round 4, which is ‘Performance Director’s discretion’. That group come together really well, they’re working together as a group, feeding off each other, challenging each other, in a positive way.
“In the end, the discussion was that the best thing was to take all three. They will thrive on that. It’s a message to the track and field community and the throws community that we want to support them and that they deserve opportunities.”
Mother-of-two Jo Pavey will go to a fifth Olympics at the age of 42 after being handed the nod over Kate Avery while, in their most controversial move, team chiefs gambled on 2008 gold medallist Christine Ohuruogu to re-discover the form of her pomp by giving her a 400m slot ahead of Anyika Onuora.
“It was a really tough decision,” Black acknowledged. “Probably, what won out in the end was Christine’s focus on preparation. The fact that at this time of the season, she’s rarely running any faster than she is now. But we really understand the focus that enabled her to really peak effectively in the past and we have no reason to believe she won’t be able to be now.”
The squad’s medal hopes will be headed by London 2012 champions Mo Farah, Jessica Ennis-Hill and Greg Rutherford with UK Sport set to reveal their medal targets for track and field – and other sports – later today.
“The way we look at it is that we’ve got a team capable of winning a large number of medals,” Black confirmed.
“It’s going to be so tough. But we’re going to compete. We have a high expectation. We expect to win medals.”
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