Why the British athletics selection bar is set so high

“Setting tough standards helps improve performance levels,” writes UKA chair Ian Beattie as he outlines the reasoning behind the governing body’s strict policy

There has been a lot of discussion before every championship about the selection policy that UKA has in place. I wanted to explain the thinking behind it in more detail.

Ever since lottery funding came into place, the philosophy underpinning all lottery funded UK elite sport has been about ‘World Class Performance’. Ultimately this means winning medals in world level competition, inspiring the nation in doing so. World Class Programme Lottery funding is ring-fenced – only to be used to support athletes in their build up ultimately to the Games, to fund governing bodies to help athletes, and to fund teams taking part in those championships and Games.

Whilst this means the World Class Programme has been somewhat shielded from the financial issues of the rest of the organisation, like any public money, those who receive it are accountable for it, in our case via UK Sport. While some sports will only select athletes with medal potential, we have agreed with UK Sport that an aim of achieving top eight performance fits the world class criteria they are prepared to fund.

Athletics has many disciplines, so our teams tend to be much bigger than other sports and consequently more expensive, and – contrary to belief – we do also have to make a financial contribution to our team attending a Games. UK Sport’s view – and it is a view I agree with – is that an athlete getting to the Olympics with little chance of qualifying from their heat or pool, does not have a significant impact on inspiring the nation, and therefore does not merit public funding.

There is also an issue that larger teams can dilute the level of support given during the championships to our genuine medal contenders, and that there is a demotivational effect on the team as a whole when the first few days of the championship are dominated by athletes failing to qualify from their heat or pool.

The World Athletics ranking qualification system has resulted in much debate. We should be clear that this is not a direct invitation to the athlete to take part nor do we ‘turn down’ invites. Rather it is a different qualification route for athletes, allowing national federations to select athletes through this route if they consider it appropriate to do so.

Our view is that those athletes should only be selected on similar…