2010 Duathlon World Championships

I just received the October edition of the Team USA newsletter from USAT. USAT puts together teams, thru qualifying events, to race at world championship races all over the world. They have teams for long and short course tri's, du's and a few other events. A couple years ago there were qualifying events in various regions around the country for the AG Duathlon World Championship (short course)--in addition to the U.S. Nat'l Du Championship which strangely takes place in April every year. The Midwest qualifier for the World Du was the Apple Duathlon. From the regionals, the top 2 or 3 (depending on the venue) in each age-group qualified for and were offered a position on TeamUSA. For 2009 they tried to dump all the regional qualifiers and only use the Nationals for the World Qualifier. There was a bit of a revolt so USAT decided to use Nationals and two other races as qualifiers: the Apple Du and a race in AZ (the Desert Classic???).

Well, this year they've officially done it. The only qualifier for the 2010 AG Duathlon World Championship (short course), which is in September 2010, is Nationals in April. Yep...you have to go to Nat'ls in April if you want to qualify and race 5 months later in the World championship. (note: they are using the same format for the short course triathlon world championship.) Is it just me, or is that odd. I thought it was a joke when I heard last year that this was the plan. To make things worse, they don't take the top 2 or 3 in each AG, not the top 5 or even the top 10. I know, you're thinking they only take the AG winners, right? WRONG. They take the top 18 in each AG with roll down to 25th. So, are they are saying that the top 18 at Nationals in EVERY Age-group should be racing in the World Championship, thus representing TeamUSA--rather than the top finishers in regional events. WTF?!?!?! (that's "Why The Face" if you want to keep it clean :)

Check out the qualifying criteria here: QUALIFY FOR WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS