Glasgow: Sprint champion Rohan Browning slammed the 100m qualifying at the Commonwealth Games as “plainly unfair” and manufactured to get certain runners into the finals.
Runners with the eight fastest times in the first half of this calendar year have automatically been placed in the semi-finals without having to run heats.
Only the 17 fastest times in the heats will advance to the semi-finals in Glasgow. Ordinarily, the first two finishers in each heat, and then two or three of the next fastest runners across all heats, would advance.
“It’s an unheard-of progression. It’s extremely weird,” said Browning, an Olympic and world championships semi-finalist.
“I mean, it’s gusty out there. So when they just make up these rules about eight guys get to go through and the rest of the field goes through like on the time trial rather than, you know, first or second across the line, the reality is some heats will get better conditions than others. So I don’t know what’s going on.
“I think when you turn up to a championships, you’re prepared to run three rounds, and the reality is you’ve got to run hard for all of them. So, you know, I felt like I was running hard out there, even if it also felt a little awkward.”
Browning qualified for the semi-finals, placing second in his heat with a time of 10.24s.
“Of course, it’s not fair. Clearly, it’s not fair,” Browning said of the fact eight athletes had automatically advanced to the semi-finals without running a heat.
“Like it’s clearly been engineered to try to achieve a desired outcome. Whatever’s motivated that decision, I don’t know what it is or if it’s reasonable or not. But clearly, it’s not fair. I think everyone would agree on that.
“You would expect to [advance after automatically finishing second] but it’s possible that people might get a slow heat and nobody might go through from that heat.
“Look, at the end of the day, this sport is meritocracy at its finest. If you’re quick enough, you go through.
“So I suppose you could say those guys have earned their place through the season. In all likelihood, they’re probably the guys who are going to make the final, regardless. But you just don’t know … some guys might be injured, some guys might be out of shape. ”
Further to Browning’s point, for the final heat of the morning, there was a big +3.9m/s tailwind which would make any time illegal, as far as records go. But there was no adjustment for the wind in any of the heats.
While all heats had some form of tailwind, most were only light, although that changed late.
Michael Gleeson is an award-winning senior sports writer specialising in AFL and athletics.Connect via X or email.From our partners
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