THE Summer of Athletics Tour caravan rolls into Tasmania this coming weekend with the annual Briggs Classic in Hobart.
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It will be the last national meet at the Domain facility before it undergoes a much-needed track renovation.
Fortunately for Australia's top athletes, including the likes of Tasmanians Hamish Peacock, Todd Hodgetts and Deon Kenzie, it will not be the last opportunity for them to qualify for this year's Olympic and Paralympic Games in Rio.
The beauty of the qualification system in track and field is that it is essentially all about achieving a qualifying performance.
The IAAF sets a series of entry standards and these are ticked off by the IOC.
There is an even simpler one-stop shop in this regard at the International Paralympic Committee, although an overall quota system per country also applies here.
In each country, the national governing bodies such as Athletics Australia reach agreement with the local Olympic and Paralympic authorities as to whether the internationally set standards will apply or something tougher will be imposed.
The latter used to be the case in Australia with the much-feared AOC Justification Panel holding the ultimate sword over every aspiring and then-nominated athlete's head until they were personally satisfied.
These days, a less confronting system operates and with an odd exception here and there, the international qualifying standards apply for all Australians.
From this year, there is actually a second chance system for the Olympics if the target number of competitors set by the IAAF for each event is not reached by those entered via the entry standard.
Peacock has been agonisingly close to the standard in the men's javelin of 83 metres on a couple of occasions already.
Last weekend, at the opening stanza of the national tour in Newcastle his best throw of six was just 24 centimetres short.
A year best of 82.76m might very well help him if the drop-down offers end up applying in his event but if the quota is full or over from those who get the standard, it will mean nothing.
The Commonwealth Games bronze medallist wants to be in Rio. These days throwing the standard is almost a certain way to ensure that - unless there are suddenly more than three guys in this country who can do it, since three is the maximum in any event per country in track and field.
For Hodgetts and Kenzie, the road to the Rio Paralympics is more assured simply by keeping improving.
Big Todd is the defending Paralympic gold medallist and current World Champion in the F20 class. Kenzie is the T38 world record holder. Both are in the upper echelon of Australia's paralympians in track and field and are qualified. They should easily survive any quota dramas if the list of Aussie qualifiers across the board gets too big, provided they remain in shape.
But like Peacock, neither will rest on his laurels as each is committed to competition and constant improvement. At a time when there is a worrying trend among some Australian athletes and coaches to avoid competition, the approach of these Tassie men is welcome. They will appreciate home crowd support on Saturday.■ The Briggs Athletics Classic runs from 5pm at the Domain Athletic Centre, Hobart on Saturday. Tickets available via the Athletics Australia website and on the day at the gate.