British Athletics has revealed a policy that could deny young athletes the opportunity to feature at the 2015 European U20/U23 Championships and the 2015 IAAF World Championships.
After stating British Athletics does not consider it to be “conducive to either short term results or long term development” for either under-20 or under-23 athletes to compete at both championships, it will not generally consider athletes for individual spots at both meetings.
The national governing body has, however, stated such a policy will not exist when considering athletes for combined events or relay teams. Athletes who feature in either an individual or a relay event at an international age group championship may still be considered for a relay event at the World Championships. A combined events athlete may compete in a single event at one championship and still be selected for combined events at the other.
However, they have also suggested UKA performance director Neil Black will be able to override the rule for special exceptions.
In the past several high profile athletes have achieved success at both international age group championships and an international senior championship in the same year. The most recent example of this is Adam Gemili, who after winning the U23 200m trials, went on to win the European U23 200m title then finished 5th at the 2013 IAAF World Championships.
The full British Athletics selection policies can be found here.
