Athletics Australia has released the national chamionship entry standards for the 2012-13 season. (Download here)

At a throwers meet in Halle/Salle, Germany, Robert Harting surpassed the 70m mark for the first time, throwing 70.31m in his third attempt before a massive crowd. After this fantastic effort he commented the timing of his release was not yet optimal, but who’s he to complain? The video of his winning throw can be seen here.

Piotr Malachowski finished second with 68.94m, and the discovery of the season, Lawrence Okoye, threw yet another British record with 68.20m.

The full results (many of which are very impressive) can be found here.

Claudia Steiner has been selected to represent Australia at the Oceania Athletics Championships held in Cairns in late June. Congratulations!

AA team announcement

This is unprecedented. Three Australian male discus throwers have now qualified for the London Olympics.

Recently, at a low key meet in Townsville, Benn Harradine set a new national record with 67.53m.

Somewhat out of the blue, Scott Martin has also thrown an A-qualifier in Maui, and with a personal best of 65.63m at that! He had two more throws in excess of 64m. In the same meet, Stephanie Trafton threw an new US record with 67.74m.

Meanwhile, youngster Julian Wruck has produced big throws in the early part of the US season, with 63.79m at the Stanford Invitational and 64.84m at the Rafer Johnson/Jackie Joyner-Kersee Invitational (video).

The Olympics will be a different game, but with all three of them posting these sorts of distances now, they all have a realistic chance to make it to the final.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has held invalid a long-standing bye-law of the British Olympic Association (BOA), which has prevented athletes sanctioned for doping offences since 1992 from participating in any further Olympic Games. This means that a host of athletes, including Dwain Chambers, are now eligible to compete at the London Olympics.

Let’s take a step back: National Olympic Committees must align their doping rules in line with the WADA code. In 2009, on the same day BOA adopted the new WADA code, it also introduced a bye-law, which was not in compliance with the WADA code, and effectively double-punished athletes for committing doping offences, as CAS has now confirmed. Mind you, for over two years, WADA didn’t think much of bye-law 7.4, which it now says it initially considered a selection rule, not a rule about doping sanctions.

However, after CAS recently ruled that a similar rule by the United States Olympic Committee was invalid for being inconsistent with the WADA Code, WADA immediately advised BOA that its bye-law 7.4 was not in compliance with the WADA Code (Rule 23.2.2) either.

The BOA then appealed to CAS about WADA’s decision.

CAS determined the core issue to be not whether either body should appear to be soft on doping, but “whether BOA may pursue that policy [contained in bye-law 7.4] on its own or whether that policy must be pursued, if at all, through the world-harmonized WADA Code.” (para 8.2)

As a signatory,  BOA was bound to have rules complying with the WADA Code. In particular CAS pointed out that:

“The purpose of Article 23.2.2 WADA Code is indeed the very purpose of the WADA Code: the harmonization throughout the world of a doping code for use in the fight against doping. This worldwide harmony is crucial to the success of the fight against doping. The WADA Code is intended to be an all-encompassing code that directs affected organizations and athletes. The WADA Code ensures that, in principle, any athlete in any sport will not be exposed to a lesser or greater sanction than any other athlete; rather, they will be sanctioned equally. By requiring consistency in treatment of athletes who are charged with doping infractions or convicted of it — regardless of the athlete’s nationality or sport — fairness and proper enforcement are achieved. Any disharmony between different parties undermines the success of the fight against doping. For these good reasons, NOCs and other Signatories agreed to limit their autonomy to act within their own spheres with respect to activities covered by the WADA Code.” (para 8.12)

And further:

“The proportionality of sanctions for anti-doping offences shall be evaluated within the worldwide harmonized system of the WADA Code – and cannot be the object of an additional disciplinary proceedings triggered by the same offence.” (para 8.33)

The decision by CAS will be condemned by many, including high-profile anti-doping fighters like Steve Backley, but there is no doubt that CAS came to the correct conclusion.

A consistent, global approach is crucial to the fight against doping.
Read the full decision here.

After the IAAF introduced the option for organisers to allow all competitors four trials rather than applying the usual 3+3 format, there has been an increasing tendency even by national and state organisers to limit the number of attempts for horizontal field events to four, presumably to make competitions shorter and sharper.

This may be what the broadcasters wanted, and this format may be suitable for high-level international one day meets. But for championships the usual 3+3 format has been retained, and therefore it should be used for all youth, junior, open and masters lower level meets as well. The format, which has stood the test of time, strikes a good balance.

Athletes of all abilities have at least three trials. Those who are more serious and who have achieved a certain level of proficiency earn the privilege of a further three trials. Trying to qualify for the Top 8 final is a competition within the competition. Those who don’t make it have something to aim for. Those who are more ambitious learn to pace themselves and get used to the championship format as they encounter it even at international level.

There is no good reason to award an extra attempt to weaker athletes and take away two attempts from the more serious athletes. Depending on the number of competitors, the time saving of a 4-throw competition versus a 3+3 competition is minimal, but more about that later.

The argument that athletes usually don’t improve in the last three rounds anyway can be easily refuted.

I’ve done the maths for the throwing events, and the results are unequivocal (see table 1 at the end of this post).

I collated the results from all Olympic Games and World Championships since 2000, a sample of 72 competitions, to see how throwers fared in the finals.

Across all four events, on average 2.2 throwers achieve a season’s best in the course of the final, ranging from 0 to 5.

The number of throwers who improve in their last three attempts averaged around 3.3 across all events except in the men’s javelin, where 2 throwers improved, although there were only 2 men’s javelin competitions where the competition was decided after the first three rounds.

On the other hand, in the men’s hammer on average 4.3 athletes improved in the Top 8 rounds. In all  competitions other than the men’s javelin the range was between 1 and 5.

In 82% of competitions the placings changed in the last three rounds (see Table 2). The average is dragged down by the javelin, where the figure is 50%. In the shot put, discus and hammer the figure is close to or above 90%.

If we look at how many athletes improved in their last two trials, the average across all events is still at 2.4. Again, the men’s javelin is lower, and the men’s hammer higher than the average.

Clearly, the Top 8 finals are more often than not quite competitive. It can hardly be generalised that athletes don’t improve in the last three rounds or even the last two rounds.

Also, in terms of saving time, there is not much to be gained by applying the four trials rule (see Table 3). Once there are more than 8 competitors, the time saving reduces steadily until at 24 competitors, the number of trials to be carried out per competition are equal, and from that point on the 3+3 format is in fact more time efficient. In any event,  the Top 8 rounds tend to be over more quickly, especially when throwers can judge whether to make invalid any trials that are clearly sub-par. Distance lines in or along the sector would be useful for that purpose as well.

It is also important to note that the relevant IAAF rule (180.5 Note (iii)) states that the four-attempt rule can only be applied where there are more than 8 athletes competing.

Table 1:

Table 2:

Table 3:

Last weekend at the Little A State Championships there were some great results which I want to report here:

The two youngest squad members fought over the medals in the U10 discus. Alex Murdocca had the upper hand in the end with a phenomenal last round throw of 36.17m. Jack McFadden finished in third with 34.85m. Jack went on to win the gold medal in the shot put the next day with a huge put of 10.33m.

Alec Diamond continued his great run of performances in the discus, taking the gold in the U15 discus with 50.38m.

Michael Taylor started his weekend with a 4th place finish in the U17 discus with 43.96m. He claimed silver in the shot put with an excellent 15.28m,  before winning bronze in the javelin with 53.72m.

At the 12th European Cup Winter Throwing in Bar, Montenegro, Nadine Müller indicated she will be the one to beat come London. She used the good weather conditions well, and all her throws were over 65m. In her third attempt she set a new PB by about one metre with 68.81m, followed by another PB of 68.89m.  No woman has thrown this far in eight years!

In an interview with Leichtathletik.de the 26 year-old explained that this performance came after a two-week training camp in Portugal where she had ideal training conditions. She has reached a level of consistency that now allows her to throw 66-67m any time, giving her great confidence, which means she can go into competitions more relaxed.

However, she knows that this distance doesn’t mean much for the coming summer, as there is still a lot of hard training ahead of her. She is still working on her technique, which she acknowledges is not the best. After focusing on her leg power for the last two years, she knows it may still take another two years before she can turn these improvements into even better competition performances. She also has a lot of room for improvement in the strength department, where she considers herself the worst amongst the world’s elite discus throwers.

Her goals for the coming season are surprisingly modest. At the European Championship she is aiming for a medal, and for the Olympic Games she hopes to achieve a top 6 placing. 

Sandra Perkovic, back from her doping ban, decided to throw in the U23 category, where she dominated the competition with a winning throw of 67.19m. She had two further throws over 66m.

An interesting side note: All competitors at this event received 6 trials.

Full results

Between 14 and 18 March 2012 Australia’s best junior athletes converged on Sydney Olympic Park.

Seven of my athletes also featured:

Michael Taylor kicked off his campaign with a near-PB 54.33m (6th place) in the U18 javelin.

Claudia Steiner and Rachel Hepworth competed in the U20 discus. Claudia threw 37.60m and finished 7th, whilst Rachel threw 33.37, finishing in 9th place.

Alec Diamond came 8th in the U16 shot put with an excellent distance of 12.72m. In the discus he finished 8th, but he achieved his goal of throwing the 1kg discus 50m. The 50.43m in his second attempt were no fluke, as his other three throws were also close to the 50m mark.

In the U16 shot put Jack Maguire finished in third place with 11.69m.

Ian Hutchinson displayed great consistency and strong nerves, throwing at his very best in the U18 discus. He finished in 6th place with  46.33m, 3cm ahead of Michael Taylor.

Will North threw a fantastic new big new PB of 44.50m in the javelin (6th), and this less than 24 hours after running a 2000m Steeple race.

Finally, Michael Taylor made his mark in the U18 shot put, clinching the bronze medal in a tough competition with a new PB of 15.49m in the third round.

It was pleasing to see that everyone at least confirmed their training results and performances in recent competitions, whilst some excelled at the right time. Congratulations.

On 9 March shot putter Emanuele competed in the qualification round at the World Indoor Championship in Istanbul. Starting for Samoa, his first round effort of 18.60m was his best. A fine effort in his first big international competition. Dale Stevenson finished in 11th place with a respectable 19.80m.

Later on in the final young German star David Storl was leading for four rounds with a huge 21.88m, until in the fifth round Ryan Whiting unleashed a 22.00m effort.

Results qualification

Results final

The next day, in the women’s shot put, Valerie Adams (20.54m) won another duel with arch-rival Nadzeya Ostapchuk.

Results women’s final