British athletes criticize U.K. Athletics world championship selection process

U.K. Athletics is under criticism after 19 athletes have been denied the opportunity to compete at the upcoming World Athletics Championships in Budapest next month, despite earning qualifying through their world rankings.

According to The Guardian, U.K. Athletics has rejected invitations sent by World Athletics to athletes who have not met the required qualification standard in their respective events, but are ranked within the top 50 in the World Athletics rankings. Three years ago, World Athletics implemented a new qualification system that aims to create a fairer selection process for major championships. The system is designed to select half the athletes based on automatic qualification standards and the other half based on where athletes sit in the rankings.

A sad qualifying story 💔

The 27 year old sprinter/hurdler Lina Nielsen is a British athlete ranked 2nd at home and 27th in the world in 400m. She's getting invite to Budapest but the Federation has denied her that chance and rejected it.

What's your take? pic.twitter.com/IxtUiVz1gE

— Track Spice 🌶️ (@trackspice) July 24, 2023

Several athletes took to social media expressing their frustration and disappointment, since they thought they had rightfully earned their spots to compete on the world stage.

Lina Nielsen, a British 400m hurdler, expressed her frustration with the selection process on Instagram: “To know that I’m deemed good enough to go to the world champs but that my federation will say no is world-shattering,” she wrote. “My heart is heavy. I feel completely cheated by U.K. Athletics.”

Nielsen, ranked 25th in the world this year, is among those who will receive a World Athletics invite based on her world ranking. However, U.K. Athletics plans to reject it, citing her best time this summer as 0.06 seconds outside the automatic qualification standard.

The selection process has also affected British hurdler Joshua Zeller, who finished fifth in the men’s 110m hurdles at the 2022 World Championships in Eugene. Despite reaching the world final last year and being ranked inside the top 30, Zeller’s invitation to the 2023 world championships will be rejected for the same reason.

“I fully comprehend that I did not meet the required criteria set forth, but this situation adds further disappointment,” wrote Zeller on Instagram. “Going from being a world finalist to not even being able to compete in this year’s championships is truly disheartening.”

U.K. Athletics has been transparent that their new selection process emphasizes optimizing medal success and securing top-eight placings at the major championships, rather than sending the highest number of athletes allowed. Zeller and Nielsen stress that this should not come at the cost of denying opportunities to deserving athletes who qualified based on world rankings.

The issue has sparked discussions about the authority and decision-making of national federations, with some athletes even contemplating legal action to challenge UK Athletics’ stance.