Wykes’s 2:12 is Olympics worthy

Experienced runners will tell you that the marathon doesn’t begin until 20 miles. After this point, the space between mile markers, previously covered with ease, suddenly become an impassable gulf. Races are won and lost here and at the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon the difference between representing Canada at the 2012 London Olympics came down to one second.

Although they finished more than a minute apart, there might as well have been just one second separating Eric Gillis from Dylan Wykes, the second- and third-place Canadians in the race. Gillis finished in 2:11:28, just under the Canadian Olympic standard of 2:11:29. Wykes ran a still world-class 2:12:57.

One second deciding who represents Canada and who doesn’t.

One second that may as well have been 20 minutes according to Athletics Canada who have set the Canadian standard a full three minutes faster than the International benchmark.

Canada, under international rules can field three men in the Olympic Marathon who run under 2:15. Wykes may have been good enough for the world but was not, ironically, good enough to represent Canada.

According to Scott MacDonald, national teams program director for Athletics Canada, the national standard is one that isn’t open to negotiation. “There will be no wiggle room on selection. [Wykes] still has until April of 2012 to achieve the standard”, stated MacDonald unequivocally.

Wykes remains cautiously optimistic.

“I love what I am doing right now so even if the journey doesn’t end with meeting my goal of going to London I’m happy to be giving it a go,” he said. “I’ll be pulling out all the stops to get’er done.”

Athletics Canada believes it has a standard based on the cold facts of international competition and the inevitability of limited available resources for sports that most people pay attention to for two weeks every four years. Distance running may have millions of adherents in this country but CBC’s coverage of the Scotiabank Marathon was an anomaly in a media landscape that relegates marathon coverage to the hinterlands of the television schedule.

“Even if you consider three athletes per country”, continues MacDonald, “Eric Gillis’s performance would be 33rd on that list, and Wykes right around 50th in the world.”

MacDonald believes that the Canadian standard is a statistical truth and indicates an athlete’s potential to compete with the world’s best.

Unfortunately, until recently, few athletes have come close to the latest Canadian Olympic standard of 2:11:29, and by recently, meaning the last 40 years. It’s hard to discern the reason for this but if Reid Coolsaet’s high profile race along Toronto’s waterfront is any indicator of the future, then things may be about to change.

Before the commercialization of the running club, running was a grassroots phenomenon. World-beating Canadian athletes weren’t chosen or cultivated but quietly emerged from organizations like the Toronto Olympic Club, the U of T Track club and shepherded by coaches like Paul Poce and more recently Dave Scott-Thomas. Coolsaet trains with Speed River in Guelph, Ont., and if his success is any indicator, the grassroots of the sport matter profoundly if this country is interested in returning to the path blazed by Tom Longboat, Jerome Drayton and Jacquie Gareau.
Despite massive participation in the sport, these kinds of organizations and dedicated coaches are the keys to success.

Athletics Canada is only the final gate keeper.

MacDonald does not believe that the Olympics is the best place for athletes to develop. Unlike the NHL that has highly drafted rookies “play up” for the pre-season and often a few early season games, MacDonald believes having Canadian marathoners who merely meet the International standards race in the Olympics is like putting an undrafted, young goalie in the net against NHL slap shots.

“Someone running a 2:18 is not in the same league as guys running 2:03 to 2:11. That’s not development, that’s throwing them to the wolves” says MacDonald. Above all maintains MacDonald, “Our mission is not to participate in the Olympic Games. It is to compete.”

But Wykes’s 2:12 isn’t a 2:18 and at some point Athletics Canada’s reasoning suggests a startling inflexibility. Is there really a discernible difference between Gillis’s and Wykes’s potential to compete in London when the margins are this small?

The question, perhaps, isn’t as clear, nor as objective as Athletics Canada would like to believe. When the stakes are this high and the time in question close enough to almost constitute a rounding error, the important question isn’t whether or not Wykes’s met the standard conjured by a bean counter at Athletics Canada but, far more importantly, does Wykes’s inclusion on Canada’s Olympic team help the sport?

For too long Athletics Canada, and certainly the rest of Canada’s running community have been indifferent to Canada’s lack of presence on the World stage in the marathon.

Coolsaet, Gillis and Wykes ran a race for the ages. More runners of their calibre will almost certainly follow. And for those watching the race that windy, grey morning, there is no doubt that all three displayed the heart of Canadian Olympian.

All three should be eligible for the team.