BTF to change Age Group AG Qualification Rules

ITU members (Wiki) – useful huh?!

2014: The BTF will change the Age Group (AG) Qualification rules for 2015 and this will affect triathlon, duathlon, European and World qualification.

A little birdette told me this is being considered later on this year by the BTF.

1. Pre-Qualification

I think mostly the area that will be changed will be the Pre-Qualification (PQ) rules. Currently the first 3 athletes in the AG ETU or ITU Final qualify for next year’s event. Really it can be quite irking for a potential qualifier the following year seeing that someone has qualified after having finished 25th at the previous year’s World Champs by being the 3rd Brit home.

In my opinion a change is warranted here. Clearly the BTF want to make it as easy as possible to present their best team the following year. PQ allows that. But PQing someone in 25th place does not help.

so how could this change? I seem to remember a few years abck that you had to finish in the Top 10 or Top 5 (can’t remember which). I predict that will be re-instated next year ie the first 3 Brits each of whom must fit in the top 10 to PQ.

Alternatively it could be done based on a %age of the winner’s time. But I would imagine that would be an administrative nightmare. Have you ever tried producing your own spreadsheet as you yourself change AGs? I have; it really is a nightmare. Imagine being the unpaid BTF team manager and doing that for 20/30 AGs…however many there are for both sexes and para-T.

2. Less Popular Age Groups

In some of the smaller AGs, qualification becomes easy. You qualify once, by being the only entrant, and then continually PQ for subsequent ETU/ITU events. This might seem unfair when looked at by other AGs.

I don’t think this will change as I don’t think anyone is particularly disadvantaged.

3. Up Qualification

Currently medalling at the ETU event gives no right to ITU/World’s qualification. That seems wrong to me, surely you reward achievement and provide motivation for more achievement. They should and so should the first 3 of any Top 5 finishers I reckon. Perhaps a %age of the winner’s time could be applied for 4th and 5th place to ensure quality people get to up PQ for the World’s? Anyway, I don’t think this will change either.

Thoughts?

FYI: 2014 Qualification Places (20x per AG, 25x if final held in the UK)

1. 3x from previous year’s same championship (can also be achieved from changing AG, no rolldown to next people)

2. 1x GB Champion

3. 12x qualifying places – usually top4 in 3 qualifying races (these do rolldown in the races)

4. Discretionary places (rare and exceptional)

5. 4x rolldown places (usually). These increase to a maximum total of 20 rolldown places depending on if the above slots are claimed or not. Usually based on %age of the AG winner’s time in each of the qualifying races