Sri Lanka to hold ‘selection meet’ for WMA Asia regionals? WTF?
What the fork? According to a New Year’s Eve report by The Sunday Times of Colombo, “The Masters Athletics Sri Lanka, the only association in the country accredited to World and Asia Masters Athletics Association, will conduct a Selection Meet at Diyagama Mahinda Rajapaksa Stadium on February 27 and 28 to select the Sri Lanka team which [will] participate [in] the Asia Masters Athletic Tournament in Singapore from May 5 to 8 in 2016.” So the Sri Lankans didn’t get the memo? Masters don’t need to qualify for WMA-sanctioned meets. “No Master shall be refused entry or participation on ground of race, religion, politics, nationality or place of residence,” says this version of the Asian Masters Athletics Constitution. In other words, if you belong to a recognized affiliate, you can enter Asian regionals. No qualifying meet needed. Sri Lanka pulled the same stunt before Lyon. How do they get away with this?
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Interesting, actually sort if don’t mind the idea of it, especially if it came with funding for athletes who qualify.
How many from Sri Lanka participated in Lyon?
I suspect very few actually participate from Sri Lanka – and there is little to no money available. Perhaps some snazzy uniforms such as are provided to participating athletes who has met local qualifying standards in several small countries that have national organizations for masters athletes sponsored by local companies.
If they didn’t provide subsidies, many countries would not be able to recruit teams for overseas meets. Holding trials assures the subsidies go to the best (rather than the best-connected). The problem would arise if people who didn’t get selected were then prevented from paying their own way.
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