Just a day or two before the start of the athletics program at the Commonwealth Games, the public was made aware that the top eight 100 metre sprinters in the rankings would be given a free ticket into the semifinals in a break from tradition.
It left the rest of the field, including Australians Rohan Browning and Eddie Nketia, to duke it out in a mass time trial across 11 heats.
It was a significant change to the usual system where everybody runs the heats and the top two in each race are automatic qualifiers, with the remaining runners trying to get through on times.
Both Australians finished second in their heats, but Browning could not enjoy the moment after going through in 10.24 seconds in heat seven with four more to come.
Browning said the new rules were as much of a surprise to him as they were for the rest of us.
“It’s an unheard of progression, it’s extremely weird. It’s really hard to know, I have no idea what times have been run, I have no idea where I sit in the placings,” he said, asking reporters to clue him in on where he sat in the standings.
“It’s gusty out there, so when they just make up these rules about eight guys get to go through and the rest of us goes through on a time trial rather than first or second across the line, the reality is some heats will have better conditions than others, so I don’t know what’s going on.”
Browning made the cut in 16th as the second slowest qualifier and compatriot Eddie Nketia was fourth fastest overall with his 10.07
Browning, who was a controversial inclusion in the team ahead of Josh Azzopardi, said he always turns up prepared to run three rounds but the other folks, including countryman Lachie Kennedy, do not have to.
Eddie Nketia looked powerful as he finished second in his heat. (Getty Images: Michael Steele)
“It’s not fair, clearly it’s not fair,” he said.
“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.”
Nketia said it was out of his control so he was not going to worry too much about it, and Browning acknowledged the best response is probably to just run fast.
“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,” he said.
“In all likelihood they were probably the guys paying the best odds to make the final regardless, but you just don’t know. Some guys might be injured, some guys might be out of shape. I don’t even know when they took the performances from.”
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