'Huge problems' with 2018 Games athletics selection criteria says Garland

The Guernsey Island Amateur Athletics Club remain in discussions with the Guernsey Commonwealth Games Association about the qualifying proposals that the GCGA validation committee has set for athletics.

However, with the GCGA looking unlikely to budge, former Olympian and three-time Commonwealth Games athlete Dale Garland has spoken out about the issue.

The GCGA has set incredibly strict times for the 'A' standard for all track events, but has also said that as long as athletes are ranked in the top 30 in England in their event, then they are eligible if they reach the 'B' standard.

In many cases, it is easier to qualify for Great Britain in major championships such as the Europeans than it is to represent Guernsey in the Commonwealth Games.

Most of the men's criteria are also quicker times than the existing island records.

The GIAAC and the GCGA have declined to comment while the matter is ongoing.

But it is a skewed approach that Garland finds concerning.

'There are two huge problems with this suggested selection process and the first of those is that the A standard times that have been proposed are simply unattainable and unrealistic,' said the man who finished fifth in the Melbourne 2006 decathlon.

'Many of the times that have been set would make you a genuinely world-class athlete and will not be reached, so all that will do is dishearten our athletes.

'However, the discrepancies between the top 30s across different events in athletics is huge – it simply is not a fair or accurate measure to use for athletics.

'For me, the only fair way is to use the IAAF scoring system that is used to compare all events and disciplines on a world athletics level.'

• More in Wednesday’s Guernsey Press.