Until recently, Ethiopia had not officially disclosed the list of athletes who met the qualifying times (minimal) for the men's 1500m and 800m events at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
The National Federation, in collaboration with the Ethiopian Olympic Committee, has now announced that while many athletes have achieved the qualifying times for the World Athletics Championships in recent years, not all these times meet the stringent criteria for major international competitions like the Olympics.
To address this, they plan to leverage the athletes' World Ranking points to secure participation in these prestigious events.
World Athletics has engineered a database system to meticulously track and disseminate the outcomes of competitions, crucial for accruing World Ranking points, such as the Olympics, within specified timeframes. In furtherance of this endeavor, an online platform dubbed "Road to Paris 2024" is slated for unveiling in October 2024, aimed at facilitating the monitoring of athlete qualifications for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
According to Asfaw Dagne, the Sports Director of the Federation, the Ethiopian Athletics Federation remains committed to fielding athletes in the men's 1,500 and 800-meter middle-distance events until the conclusion of the qualifying period, ensuring athletes have ample opportunities to compete.
- Advertisement -He added that World Athletics provides this opportunity by selecting athletes with the highest scores from across the globe.
According to data from World Athletics (Road to Paris 2024), 70 male marathon athletes have met the time limit (minimal), with an additional 10 seizing the opportunity, making a total of 80 qualified athletes. Similarly, in the women's category, 88 athletes have qualified based on the time (minimal) for the Paris Olympics.
Additionally, the data system specifies that if any member federation exceeds three qualified competitors in a particular event, they are limited to entering only three athletes. "The National federations will have the autonomy to choose their representatives based on their internal selection criteria when selecting these three athletes," told Asfaw to The Reporter.
In May 2024, the Ethiopian Athletics Federation announced the names of the national athletes selected to represent Ethiopia in both men's and women's marathons at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
