• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

ACC 2019/A/054 OFFICE OF THE ATHLETICS CANADA COMMISSIONER IN THE MATTER OF AN APPEAL between KELSIE AHBE as Appellant and ATHLETICS CANADA as Respondent SELECTION APPEAL DECISION APPEARING FOR THE APPELLANT: KELSIE AHBE APPEARING FOR THE RESPONDENT: SIMON NATHAN, ATHLETICS CANADA 2. I. PARTIES 1. The Appellant, KELSIE AHBE is a Pole Vaulter. She wishes to participate in the 2019 IAAF World Championships. Kelsie has competed for Canada at the 2016 Olym- pic Summer Games, the 2015 Pan American Games, the 2015 NACAC Games and the 2017 IAAF World Championships. She has received CAPP (2016, 2017, 2019) and AAP (2015-17, 2019) funding for several years. She is a past National Pole Vault Champion. 2. The Respondent, Athletics Canada is the national governing body for athletics, cross-country and road running in Canada. It is a not-for-profit Corporation incorporated pursuant to the Canada Not-for-Profit Corporations Act, S.C. 2009. Pursuant to Athlet- ics Canada’s Bylaws, the Board of Directors appoints Committees as necessary for the management of the Corporation’s affairs. Athletics Canada has appointed and tasked the National Team Committee (NTC) with identifying athletes to compete in athletics at various international competitions. Simon Nathan is the High-Performance Director at Athletics Canada. 3. As only one female athlete has this far been selected for the team, no athletes would be affected should Kelsie be successful in her appeal. II. JURISDICTION 4. This Appeal has been brought to the Athletics Canada Commissioner’s Office pursuant to regulations found in the Athletics Canada Commissioner’s Office Terms of Reference. Those terms of reference state that the Commissioner’s Office is empow- ered to resolve appeals of team selection decisions in any manner. I have conducted this appeal by submission of documents. 5. The NTC published the 2019 IAAF World Championships Selection Criteria on the Athletics Canada website on April 17, 2019. The document outlines the various dates and processes concerning the team selection. 6. The document states: APPEALS Only athletes who are eligible to be considered for selection (see sections 1.3 and 3) and who have Page | 10 April 17, 2019 achieved the standard (see Appendix A) during the Qualifying Period (see section 1.2) may submit an appeal for selection to the Commissioner’s Office. Please refer to the National Team Selection – Rule Book and the AC Rules and By-laws Section 140.06 & 140.07 for further information. An ap- peal has to be submitted to the following e-mail address commis- [email protected] 3. Contact the AC Appeals email address ([email protected]) for pay- ment options of the $250 appeal fee. The appeal will not be reviewed until the appeal fee has been paid. 7. The appellant, KELSIE AHBE was not proposed for selection for the team. She made an appeal to me, and on first review, her complaint is neither trivial nor vexatious, and I have allowed the appeal to proceed. III. FACTUAL BACKGROUND 8. The Appellant is a talented pole vaulter who has competed for Canada at several competitions including the Olympic and Pan Am Games, and the IAAF World Champi- onships. She is a past National Champion. She is not a neophyte to the selection pro- cess and its rules. 9. Kelsie competed at the Bell Athletic Centre in Jonesboro, Arkansas. This is a year-round facility that uniquely trains pole vaulters, and was founded by a former Olym- pic Games Bronze Medal winning pole vaulter. In May 2019, Kelsie completed a jump at this facility which entitled her to be selected for the Canadian team for the Pan Ameri- can Games, where she placed 5th. 10. In August of this year, at the same facility, Kelsie completed a jump of 4.56 m, which is the qualifying standard for the IAAF World Championships, which will be held in Qatar in September. Only one other female Canadian Pole Vaulter exceeded this standard, so Kelsie’s selection to the World Championship Team would be automatic, as three competitors are allowed in each event. 11. Two Athletics Canada documents concern the team selection for the Qatar Championships, the 2019 IAAF WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS SELECTION CRITERIA, and the NATIONAL TEAM SELECTION – RULES BOOK. While the former is silent on the qualifying performances being achieved at an indoor or outdoor venue, the latter contains a rule which states: “Indoor performances will not be accepted for the purposes of team selection for outdoor events.” 12. The IAAF Rules, which govern qualification to their World Championships state: “Indoor performances for all field events and for races of 200m and longer, will be ac- cepted.” 13. Therefore, the IAAF would be willing to accept an indoor performance for qualifi- cation at the IAAF World Championships, while Athletics Canada would not. In other words, the IAAF would accept Kelsie’s Jonesboro vault to allow her to compete, while Athletics Canada does not. I have enquired with Athletics Canada about this incongru- ity, and I have only been told that it is a long-standing rule. While it is different from the IAAF rule, it is still the rule in force at the time of the selections. 4. 14. While Athletics Canada did not put Kelsie’s name forward to the National Team Committee (NTC), in good faith with its rule on indoor performances, it did receive a di- rect appeal from Kelsie, and it did do its own fact finding with the IAAF concerning the Bell facility. In its correspondence back to Athletics Canada, the IAAF stated: For obvious reasons we cannot go back (we have established that, in the spirit of the rule, this is an indoor facility) but it is also true that the site in Jonesboro is one of the reason why, in reality, we don’t want to make any distinction between the validity of indoor or outdoor marks. There are cer- tainly other facilities which are even more borderline than this one and, with the current rules (which, by the way, the technical committee had pro- posed to change bringing everything into one same group), we are forced to label the facility in one way or another knowing we will not entirely sat- isfy the formal rule definition. While we do not want to interfere with your selection policy, we did want you to be aware about the debate around this matter and the fact that the indoor vs outdoor label is not so clear-cut as it may sound. 15. The IAAF also wrote to Kelsie stating: Dear Kelsie, Thank you for your note and apologies for the late reply but we have had some discussions around this matter and, specifically, around whether the facility is outdoor or indoor. Given the footage which you sent and the (attached) email from athletics Canada submitting results for what they called and Indoor PV event and prompting us to check the real nature of the competition site, there is re- ally no doubt that this is to be considered as an indoor facility as the struc- ture is certainly within the spirit of the rule. While it is true that in the past such results may have been identified as outdoor (given the date in the year it was logical for statisticians to assume this, until footage was actually seen), from our point of view there has never been any difference in the validity of the marks and that is also why it has never really been an issue considering it outdoor or indoor. Having now established that it is an indoor facility, we cannot revert to considering it an outdoor facility although, but this you know already, we do honour indoor marks as outdoor marks for qualification purposes. We will address the matter with Athletics Canada because we do under- stand your position and concerns. 5. 16. I have also received information from both Kelsie, and the Bell facility indicating that the IAAF has routinely accepted vaulting performances at the Bell facility in the summer months as being considered outdoors. 17. Athletics Canada continues to post Kelsie’s 2019 Pan American Games qualifica- tion vault on May 26 at the Bell facility as an outdoor vault. Athletics Canada accepted this vault and Kelsie represented Canada at the 2019 Pan American Games. 18. The IAAF Rule 211, concerning “The Indoor Stadium” states: “The stadium shall be completely enclosed and covered. Lighting, heating and ventilation shall be provided to give satisfactory conditions for competition.” 19. I have received evidence from Sam Bell, the operator the of the Bell Facility. He states: “Our facility is not completely enclosed. During the outdoor season the building is open on 3 sides. North, South, and Eastside bay doors remain open during competi- tion.” He confirms that during the summer months that the venue is lit by natural light and that ventilation is through the open bay doors. He also confirms that during the win- ter, the doors are closed, there is artificial lighting, and a wood stove provides heat. 20. Sam and Kelsie provided numerous examples of screen shots from the IAAF Website of pole vault performances at the Bell facility which the IAAF had qualified as outdoor performances. This includes an earlier screen of shot Kelsie’s August qualify- ing vault, which was subsequently changed by the IAAF after correspondence from Ath- letics Canada. IV. ISSUES 21. As the Commissioner, my role is to consider appeals, based on the grounds set out by the appellant, to consider the submissions of Athletics Canada and other evi- dence. The role of the Commissioner is not necessarily to hear the information as a de novo team selection, but rather is to ensure that the team selection process has been fairly followed and that the Athletics Canada has reached a reasonable conclusion.

Load more

  8

Copy Link