IT’S encouraging to hear there is no truth to reports Australian runner John Steffensen could line up in the individual 400m at the London Olympics after all.
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Steffensen should feel lucky Athletics Australia has decided not to take action for his claim the governing body failed to select him based on ‘colour’.
Steffensen’s allegations are disappointing for all those who have seriously worked hard to stamp out racism in sport.
The flamboyant runner has a point if he’s arguing his non-selection based on the rules.
It’s true teenager Steve Solomon finished a few hundreths of a second short of the A Qualifying time needed for an individual 400 metres place.
Based on selection criteria, Solomon should not run.
But Athletics Australia made a good decision in looking to the future by giving him valuable experience.
You would think Steffensen would be thrilled to have a chance of taking in the Olympic experience as a member of the 4x400m relay team. Instead, he threatens to boycott the Olympic Games and leave his team-mates out in the cold.
Athletics Australia says the decision was based on the facts Solomon has posted two personal best times in the past four weeks and is running the 400 metres a second faster than Steffensen.
The governing body cited Steffensen’s failure to regain form after tearing a hamstring at the Stawell Gift as another reason Solomon was chosen ahead of him for an individual spot.
Steffensen claimed at the weekend he deserved respect for everything he had done for the sport.
Respect is earned and an outburst such as this isn’t the way to go about that.
It would be sad if his career was lost in the shadow of this irrational outburst.
