Marathon runners outraged by tightening World Cup restrictions: ‘Discouragement policy’ | other sports

The IAAF requires a marathon time of 2 hours 10 minutes or faster in order to participate in the World Cup. The limit is one and a half minutes less than the international requirements of World Athletics (2.11.30). “I think it is unfortunate that this international guideline does not apply to us. It is a discouraging policy,” says Frank Wutselaer, one of the athletes who will run the Amsterdam Marathon on Sunday.

We have a large group of good marathon runners in the Netherlands now. There have been six athletes who have reached the Olympic limit for Tokyo, which is quite unique. According to international requirements, with our times we had already qualified for the World Cup, but also for the European Championships, which will be held next summer in August. Then we could have worked for that as a group,” says Futselaer, who had 2.11.30 as the best time.

Bjorn Kormann agrees. It is really a pity that the federation does not adhere to the international limit, because then we will all already have the European Championship limit in our pockets. I understand that the IAAF has tightened the limits because there is clearly faster running on the latest generation of running shoes, but why is the IAAF the only one setting the limits more sharply? This is special,” said the athlete with 2.11.07 as a personal best time.

Michelle Butter has fewer problems with it. I think a 2.10 limit for a world title fight is appropriate for recent developments, but I think that as Dutch marathons we should focus more on the European field. Given the times we run, this is a much bigger battlefield. But he’s been set as a reserve if we focus on the European Championship and we’re sitting there with a team up front,” said 36-year-old Kastrikomer, who has met the summer games cap with 2.10. .