INDIANAPOLIS
- USA Track & Field on Tuesday announced that it has revamped the
process for selecting its team for the IAAF World Youth Athletics
Championships. For the first time, the team will be selected based on
performances at a Team Trials event - World Youth Track & Field
Trials - which will be conducted less than two weeks before the 2009
IAAF World Youth Championships.
Since
the inception of the World Youth Championships in 1999, the U.S. team
has been selected by a committee, which reviewed the performances of
athletes who had competed in one of three national championship events
- USA Youth, USA Junior, and USATF Junior Olympics - a full year prior
to the World Championships. "Our goal is to send the best possible team
to the World Championships, and having a selection meet just prior to
the World Championships allows USATF to do this," said USATF Youth
Division Chair Lionel Leach. "As is the case with our elite athletes
and their teams, our youth athletes will be able to 'select themselves'
based on how they perform at a qualifying meet."
The
2009 World Youth Track & Field Trials will be held on June 30 -
July 1 in Ypsilanti, Michigan, in conjunction with the first two days
of the USA Youth Outdoor Track & Field Championships. The event
will serve as the qualifying event for the 8th IAAF World Youth
Championships to be held July 8-12 in Bressanone, Italy. For more
information on the 2009 World Youth Track & Field Trials, including
qualifying standards to enter the Trials and team selection criteria,
please visit
www.usatf.org/youth.