The IFSC has announced in a press release that Anouck Jaubert (FRA) and Michael Piccolruaz (ITA) have earned quota places for the Tokyo 2020 Games following the reallocation of two unused Tripartite Commission places.
© Eddie Fowke/IFSC
The press release explains:
'According to the Qualification System, the Tripartite Commission quota places had to be assigned by the end of March. However, no application was filed within that deadline, and being now at the end of April any unused quota place has to be reallocated.'
On March 24th, the IOC and Japan agreed to postpone the Tokyo 2020 Olympics to 2021 due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Jaubert and Piccolruaz receive the quota thanks to their placement at the 2019 IFSC Climbing World Championships in Hachioji, where they finished in 11th and 14th position respectively in the Women's and Men's Combined event.
Anouck Jaubert will join her teammates Julia Chanourdie, Bassa Mawem and Mickael Mawem, making France the third country, along with Japan and the United States of America, to qualify the maximum country quota of four climbers for the Games.
The decision to reallocate the Tripartite quota places now means that the road to Tokyo for Jaubert's teammate Fanny Gibert - who was just one place out of qualification in Toulouse - has come to an end. Had the IFSC European Championships in Moscow - rescheduled due to COVID-19 - taken place as originally planned in March, Gibert had a chance to win the event and take the last French spot.
Michael Piccolruaz is the third Italian athlete to qualify for Tokyo 2020, after Ludovico Fossali placed 9th in Hachioji and Laura Rogora took 8th place at the IFSC Combined Qualifier in Toulouse. In another hypothetical situation, had Moscow gone ahead when planned earlier in March, Piccolruaz's compatriot Stefano Ghisolfi had a chance of winning and earning the last Italian male quota place.
The reallocation of the unused quota places brings the total of Olympic qualified athletes to 32 out of the full quota of 40, with 16 athletes per gender decided so far. The complete list of qualified athletes is available on the dedicated Olympic page of the IFSC website.
The eight remaining slots will be awarded according to the following schedule of continental championships:
- IFSC European Championships in Moscow (RUS), from October 1 to 8
- IFSC African Championships in Cape Town (RSA), date To Be Defined
- IFSC Asian Championships, location and date TBD
- IFSC Oceania Championships in Sydney (AUS), date TBD
The IFSC Executive Board recently decided that the qualification process will have to be concluded before December 31, 2020, ending speculation that younger athletes might have become eligible for qualification in their 16th year and therefore stand a chance of qualifying in the 2021 season.
Comments
Seems incredibly harsh on the two athletes who may well have been looking to qualify through the European champs. IM (basically worthless) O, it seems baffling that the date for allocating commission places wasn't rescheduled once it became clear the regional champs would be rescheduled.
Thing is, the Japanese organisers have said that they'll pull the games if there isn't a vaccine by next summer. Not sure why they can't push the games back to 2022 instead. Thing is, even if they go ahead next summer, most athletes won't have been able to train properly and/or there could be significant disparity in how much people will have been able to claim depending on their country of residence and what facilities they have at home. This is going to be an issue for all sports. So the more you think about it, the less it makes sense to have the games next summer... 2022 perhaps.
The Beijing Winter Olympics are set for 2022, so that's a major consideration.
Good point but winter and summer used to be in the same year. Where there’s a will...
But it's got to be doubtful, even with a vaccine by next summer. No vaccine will be 100% reliable. And they'd have to insist that every competitor, coach, official etc, plus media and tourist attendees have been vaccinated sufficiently in advance (impossible?) and then quarantine them all for 14 days before the games (impossible?), to not risk another wave. `Behind closed doors' is a possibility, but that only removes the crowd, not the hundreds/thousands of competitors etc etc.