With two years to go until the XXXIII Summer Olympic Games in Paris, World Athletics has announced a change in the format of the qualification system for the 200m to 1500m races.
The current system of capital Q (ranked by places) and lowercase q (ranked by times) will be eliminated in favor of the repechage series, which will give athletes who do not qualify in the first round a second chance to advance to the semifinals.
The new system will consist of four rounds formed by:
- Playoffs
- Playback
- Semifinals
- Final
What will this new format entail?
Thanks to this new system, each athlete will compete in at least two events (heats and repechage), which will also mean that athletes who reach the semifinals through this new repechage route will accumulate more fatigue, and that the heats will probably be much more tactical and slower than at present, as there is no possibility of qualifying by time.
Sebastian Coe, President of World Athletics: “After listening to athletes and journalists, we believe this is an innovation that will make progression in these events easier for athletes and generate more media interest. The Repechage Rounds will give our sport more exposure during the Olympic period and will be carefully timed to ensure that each event maintains maximum attention.”
Final details of this format change (including the schedule and progression system for each event) will be announced well in advance of the Olympic Games.
Minimums set Budapest 23
The press release also announces the minimums set by World Athletics for 50% of the participation quota (the remaining 50% will come through other entry channels).
| Men | Test (participation) | Women |
| 27:10.00 / 27:10 | 10.000 m (27) | 30:40.00 / 30:40 |
| 2:09:40 | Marathon (100) | 2:28:00 |
| 8.460 | Decathlon / heptathlon (24) | 6.480 |
| 1:20:10 | 20 km foot race (50) | 1:29:20 |
| 2:29:40 | 35 km foot race (50) | 2:51:30 |
Time window
The time windows to achieve the established minimums will be:
| 10,000 m, 20 km walk and combined events: | 31 January 2022-30 July 2023 |
| Marathon and 35 km race walk: | 1 December 2021-30 May 2023 |
| All other events: | 31 July 2022-30 July 2023 |
