Australian marathon runner Liam Adams admits he's still clueless about whether he will be racing at the Paris Olympics and says being kept in limbo after a controversial World Athletics move has left him "off in the mind".
The 37-year-old full-time tradie is listed to race a half-marathon at the Launceston Running Festival on Sunday, but says he's undecided about doing it because the saga has taken a "horrible" toll and he may not be "mentally ready".
Adams was among 10 runners from numerous countries tossed from the list of 80 spots said to be available for the men's marathon at Paris 2024.
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The Melbourne runner was placed 74th when the qualification period closed on May 5, but found himself exiled when World Athletics added 11 "universality" athletes a few days later.
Instead of adding the "universality" athletes on top of the list of 80, World Athletics included them at the expense of runners sitting inside the top 80 when the qualification period ended.
Seventy runners, including Australians Brett Robinson and Patrick Tiernan, had qualified for the Paris Games by meeting the 2:08:10 entry standard.
Wide World of Sports revealed exclusively that the debacle reached a point where American Leonard Korir, a US Army soldier among the 10 exiled runners, was willing to get the US Army lawyers involved.
"I really don't have a clue how my chances are. Logically, you'd think I'm in with a good chance of being reinstated, but I'm not sure how everything is going," Adams told Wide World of Sports.
"It's definitely affected my training. Whenever I'm doing a hard session there's always some negative thoughts in my mind that are distracting. It has kind of improved over the last week or so … but it still plays on my mind, definitely."
Adams clocked up 186 kilometres last week, including roughly 40 kilometres around three minutes per kilometre, which is around his target marathon race pace.
By Adams' mighty training standards, it was an honest week, but not honest enough.
"I know that I should be up around 200 and something kilometres per week right now and really focusing on marathon-specific training, but … the mental aspect and the stress involved have taken a fair bit of a toll," Adams said.
"Not knowing whether I'm going to be there [at the Paris Games] or not is a horrible feeling … There's just a small little percentage which is off in the mind which is a bit of a restraint on pushing that little bit harder at the moment.
"I feel like maybe doing a half-marathon [at the Launceston Running Festival] at the moment might not be the best thing for me to do, and maybe instead I should focus on my training and getting mentally right. I'm not sure if I'm mentally ready for it."
Wide World of Sports understands the 10 exiled runners might not find out whether they're in our out, either through reinstatement or other athletes not taking up their spots, until July 7. That's when the final lists of athletes and teams eligible for entry through world rankings will be published for all other athletics events.
Adams said it would be "terrible" to not find out until July 7.
"Ultimately, I want to know straight away that all this training is going towards this Olympic goal," he said.
He chuckled when asked about Korir's US Army threat.
"It's good in a way, but then it's also a scary thought that it's necessary," he said.
"If they're in a position where they're needing to be doing that then there's concerns in the process that's happening at the moment."
Athletics Australia told WWOS it remained in talks with World Athletics regarding the federation's third quota place.
World Athletics provided a statement to WWOS.
"World Athletics is currently in discussions with the International Olympic Committee [IOC] around the allocation of universality places for the marathon at this year's Olympic Games in Paris," the statement said.
"… The IOC has been very clear that the universality entries [which total about 100 athletes] for Paris must be within the total allocated athletics event quota of 1810 [down from 2000 in Rio and from 1900 in Tokyo]."
Adams and Korir both dispute the view that the qualification document attributed to the IOC and World Athletics was clear in its communication.
The document states that World Athletics was expecting 50 per cent of athletes to meet the entry standard. It also says the remaining qualification places would be allocated via world rankings. That led Adams and Korir to believe universality athletes would be included on top.
"… The deadline for universality applications from national Olympic committees [NOCs] in the marathon was 23 April. If the NOCs wanted to protect their right to a universality entry, these countries had little alternative but to apply for a place in the marathon. However, it is likely that a number will soon confirm a preference for a universality entry in the 100m. Upon receipt of which, World Athletics will be able [to] reallocate these places, if room in the quota allows," World Athletics said in its statement.
"As both marathons take place at the end of the Olympic program in Paris, we are in negotiations with the IOC to try and find a solution that will allow next best-ranked athletes in the marathon to enter the village at a later stage and possibly replace athletes from the same NOC who have finished their competition, thus not affecting the overall athlete quota.
"We hope to receive a positive response from our discussions with the IOC shortly."
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