Funnily enough.........I also agree with Paul,
The rules shouldn't be changed without asking the Armwrestlers and thats why.............they haven't been.
A number things come to mind straight out of the gates here though however :-
1.) One of the benefits of being in the UK is that the Armwrestling community is small enough and tight knit enough to ensure that we all know who the Top 2 athletes are at the available WAF classes and I have very rarely been in a situation where I have had to say that an Armwrestler is unable to pull at the EAF or WAF events at the weight class that they would like to. So in some ways though theoretically sound, I don't actually get the issue here.
2. The opposite side to that coin is that, if you have a single qualifier event for the Worlds & the day before the event you get food poisoning are Piss Weak and can't pull in the event BUT all of the rest of the year you have been consistently smashing the other guys in your class. No one off flash in the Pan results CONSISTENTLY WINNING...............then some Dude you have owned all year shows for one event when you were ill and can book their plane ticket !!! is that fair !?
3.) EAF & WAF are Drug Tested events and steroid users often have to juice in cycles in order to avoid serious health issues and in doing so, can often struggle to retain their form consistently throughout the year, therefore a multi layered qualification process reduces the opportunity for the athlete whom could utilize unfair means to out perform their competition by juicing to peak at a single event and thereby gain qualification over a natural puller with a consistent level of performance.
4.) Armwrestling is a material battle, it deals with tissue, tendons, muscles & ligaments therefore throughout the average athletes year there may be one or two months out of 12, where their form is lower than their standard representative level due to injury. If a single qualification event happens to fall at the time when you are injured to a significant extent then a far less efficient athlete may gain qualification ahead of you ! if your performance is monitored at multiple events through the course of the year and you are one of the two dominant athletes in your class then your four victories would negate your one bad performance or absence........& the right man is on the plane !!!
5.) Armwrestling is a small niche sport and I believe that those who support the sport most fully deserve to have the honour of representing their country, therefore I love to see an athlete whom has given their heart and soul to supporting their sport through thick and thin throughout the season, be awarded the honour of representing their country at the EAF or WAF Championships.
6.) Based on averages alone if an athlete competes at multiple events throughout the year he or she will be more likely to encounter the other top athletes at their specific weight class throughout the course of the year therefore allowing a greater opportunity to develop themselves against a wider range of opponents and styles which is more representative of the reality they will face in the highest level of International competition.
I could go on if required to as I have a number of other pertinent points which highlight the benefits of multi layered qualification over the use of a single event however I don't want to bore the pants of people whilst inadvertantly demonstrating the level of detail which I have gone into when presenting and considering even the smallest elements of the sport.
Anyway, to get back to the over riding and original point and to correct Paul's incorrect assumption, the decision to endorse a multi layered qualification strategy for EAF & WAF events was actually taken by an elected panel and not by myself.
The decision was taken based upon the detailed consideration of the benefits and drawbacks of both the single event and multi layered strategies and the vote was absolutely categoric in favour of a multi layered system.
The sad but in some ways comical irony of this whole point, is the fact that, in the majority of instances there is not a full team of British Athletes in attendance at EAF & WAF competition and therefore places are very very rarely contested, secondly in the rare instances where there has been a clash of interest in a specific class, it has almost always been decided in a one on one Supermatch Style qualification bout.
Ya have gotta laugh, sometimes ya really do.
however as I said when I called that was not the real intension of my post.
