National Athletics head coach Julius Kirwa believes that selected qualifying standards for the 2023 World Athletics Championships to be held in Budapest, Hungary, from August 19-27, next year, are unrealistic as they will lock out a big number of athletes from the competition.

That most entry standards for Budapest 23 are notably tougher than they were for the Oregon edition, which concluded last month, is yet another red flag for the veteran coach.

“I am looking at a situation where we shall have very few athletes making it to Budapest, because the marks are genuinely worrying,” Kirwa told People Sport. He singled out the 10,000m races, steeplechase and 100m competition as areas of great concern. 

“The men’s 10,000m mark is 27:10, chopping 18 seconds off last year’s time will be a tall order for athletes, while the women’s event is considerably more difficult, going from 31:25 to 30:40. Men were clocking 28 minutes, nobody did 27 minutes in Oregon, that itself proves that we shall have few athletes qualifying,” he added.

“For men 100m, one has to run sub 10 to qualify, same as men’s steeplechase whose time has been adjusted from 8:22 to 8:15. Something needs to be done,” added Kirwa while acknowledging a positive to the fact that runners competing in road races at 5K and 10K can qualify for their respective races on the track, while a road race mile run will count toward qualification for the 1500s.

Equally, immediate former World and Commonwealth champion, Conseslus Kipruto who is hoping to bounce back bigger and stronger next year after a testing few seasons says the qualifying marks are too high.

“I ran 8:27 for bronze in Oregon. The race might have been slow but it goes on to prove a lot of things. Not many athletes can attain the mark of 8:15, I wish the time should have been retained at 8:22 as was in Oregon,” said Kipruto who has a personal best of 8:00.12.

Africa and Commonwealth Games 100m champion Ferdinand Omanyala knows he will have to hit 10.00 seconds to qualify while for women the mark is 11.08 seconds. That compares to 10.05 and 11.15 for Eugene.

“The times are high for sure, but I look at it from the positive that I can challenge myself to run faster and qualify early enough, I will definitely push myself to do better,” said  Omanyala who dethroned Akani Simbine off the Africa title, beating the South African in a thrilling photo-finish with the duo returning 9.93 sec in the final held June 9 at Cote d’Or National Sports Complex.

The qualifying window for most events for the 2023 Worlds runs from July 31, 2022 – July 30, 2023. For the 10,000, 20k race walk, and combined events, the window is January 31, 2022 – July 30, 2023. 

For the marathon and 35k race walk, the window is December 1, 2021 – May 30, 2023.

AK senior vice president Paul Mutwii too admitted, the standards are significantly tougher in a number of events clarifying that the World Athletics attempts to have fewer athletes qualify via standard and more via World Ranking (in the past, World Athletics has hoped for 50% of athletes to qualify via standard and 50% via World Ranking).

“There are four ways to qualify: via entry standard, finishing position in area championships, wild card (defending world champion, winner of 2022 Diamond League, World Race Walking tour, World Combined Events tour or leading hammer thrower on Continental Tour) or by world ranking,” said Mutwii.

Mutwii added that Member federations which have no athletes who have achieved the entry standard or qualify via world rankings may enter one male athlete or one female athlete in certain individual events.

“The rules have been set, we can either decide to keep crying or get down to work and meet the qualifying mark,” said Mutwii who also chairs the competitions docket at Athletics Kenya.

Due to a compressed schedule caused by the pandemic, Budapest 23 will be the third major championship in four years, culminating with the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.