Chasing World Championships qualification

Seventeen athletes have been selected to represent Australia in the World Athletics Championships, to be held in Tokyo from 13-21 September, as part of the first of a three-phase selection process.

These athletes had the qualifying standard, and met other criteria set by Australian Athletics for early selection (including finishing 1st or 2nd at Nationals, and competing in the domestic Summer Series).

Twenty-one athletes also have the qualifying standard but will have to wait to the 3rd phase in late August when most will likely be selected, provided they’re fit. Marathoners will be selected during the 2nd phase in May.

Others will be hopeful that they can achieve a standard, but with some of these set beyond the current Australian records, this will be a challenging task.  World Athletics sets high standards because it only expects half the fields to be qualified through achieving the entry standard.

The Quest for Points

The other means of qualification is through aggregating enough performance points to gain a quota place. To briefly explain these terms: quota places are given to athletes who have qualified (through the standard or points) up to the maximum number for the event, and taking into account the maximum number of athletes for each country (usually three).

A performance score is made up of:

• a results score drawn from the World Athletics tables that list scores for every time/distance within an event,
• plus a score for the place achieved. 

Place scores differ according to the type of event. In the Diamond League a win gets 170 points and points down to 12th place, whereas in a category E event, a win gets 25 points and points down to only 6th place.

For a large number of the hopeful Australian athletes, the challenge from now until the 24th August, when qualification closes, is to chase these performance scores. This quest can take on some quite extraordinary journeys that presents athletes with tests of more than just their athletic ability.

Two Australian qualifying stories from 2024

Alanah Yukich last year had an initial goal of seeking selection on the Australian 4x400m team for World Relays, therefore focused on 400m events, including at the 2024 Nationals. It was only at the end of May, with just two of the required minimum 5 events under her belt, that she started focusing on her main event, the 400m hurdles.

The month of June then became this mad dash across five countries seeking point-scoring competitions, and culminated in 3 races in 3 days across 3 different European countries. Her extraordinary efforts were rewarded with enough points to gain a quota place, selection and then making an Olympic semi-final.

Another extraordinary qualifying effort was that of Tori West in one of the toughest of events, the Heptathlon. Given the stress on the body competing in seven different disciplines over two days, athletes would normally seek at least a month of recovery between each competition. 

But West was sitting just outside a quota place and needed some big points to qualify. In her quest, West took on three heptathlons in one month, travelling to Europe, back to Fiji and then back to Europe. Even with a PB in the biggest of these meets, Tori had to watch nervously in the last week of qualification, eventually grabbing the 23rd of 24 quota places, and qualification for her first Olympics.

These are exciting times for the athletes and for the fans wanting to follow their journeys. TrackAthletes gives you the tools to live through the ups and downs of your favourite athletes on their quest to qualify for Tokyo.

Athletes Mentioned: