Birmingham 2022 Athlete Allocation System

On Friday 11 December 2020, the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) released the Weightlifting Athlete Allocation System for the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.

The system is very similar to the qualifying process employed for the Gold Coast Games in 2018, but for the first time, the CGF has introduced penalties for nations that record anti-doping rule violations during the qualification period.

As a result of the unique and extenuating circumstances caused by COVID-19 and the subsequent impact on international sporting calendars, the CGF and IWF will be closely monitoring this Athlete Allocation System to determine if any changes are necessary

Below is a condensed summary of the current policy. A full copy of the athlete allocation system is available to view here

Overview

The table below shows athlete quotas for each event at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games

The qualification ranking period takes place from 01 January 2021 – 14 February 2022. There are four methods of qualification. Nations will be eligible to qualify a maximum of one athlete per event

1. Host Nation (Automatic Qualification)

The host nation (England) automatically receives one slot per event (8 men & 8 women in total)

2. 2021 Senior Commonwealth Championships (Direct Qualification)

The highest placed athlete from the eight prescribed medal events per gender at the 2021 Senior Commonwealth Championships will be eligible for Direct Qualification.

3. Commonwealth Ranking List

The IWF Commonwealth Ranking List will be used to allocate slots to the Top Eight athletes not otherwise qualified per medal event.  An additional ninth slot place will be available for the Men’s 73 kg and 81 kg competitions and Women’s 64 kg and 71 kg competitions.

4. Bipartite Invitation (IWF and CGF Bipartite Invitation)

A maximum of one Bipartite Invitation slot per event will be issued to athletes’ of widely and regularly practising nations.

Eligible Events

For 2021 eligible events for Home Nation athletes include the Commonwealth Championships (Senior, Junior & Youth), IWF World Championships (Senior, Junior & Youth), The Olympic Games, The European Championships (Senior, Youth & Junior) & The British Senior Championships.

For 2022 eligible events will only be recognised for the purpose of the IWF Commonwealth Ranking List if they take place before the end of the ranking period on 14 February 2022. As things stand potential eligible events for Home Nation Athletes include the IWF World Championships (Senior, Junior & Youth), The European Championships (Senior, Youth & Junior) & The British Senior Championships.

New: Anti-doping Rule Violation (ADRV) Rules

During the ranking period the maximum number of athletes per nation will be reduced by one for each anti-doping rule violation (ADRV) recorded by athlete or support personnel regardless of whether such individual appears, or not, on the IWF Commonwealth Ranking List.

If there are four or more violations of the IWF’s Anti-Doping Rules within a 12 month period, under the terms of the IWF’s Anti-Doping Rules, the case will be referred to the Independent Member Federations Sanctioning Panel.

British Weight Lifting, Home Nations & Crown Dependencies 

The IWF has confirmed that the Home Nations (England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland) and the Crown Dependencies (Guernsey, Jersey and Isle of Man) can compete as independent entities.

 The IWF has confirmed that British Weight Lifting as a member of IWF has jurisdictional responsibility of all eligible athletes across the UK (i.e. Home Nations and Crown Dependencies).

These responsibilities include the facilitation and enforcement of an athlete’s acceptance and compliance under the international regulations (including eligibility and anti-doping regulations) stipulated by IWF and the standards executed by British Weight Lifting

 In the case of the Home Nations (England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland) and Crown Dependencies (Guernsey, Jersey and Isle of Man), results attained by British athletes at IWF Sanctioned Events shall be attributed to their eligible nation for the purposes of the IWF Commonwealth Ranking List.

In this case only, it is the responsibility of the respective nations (via BWL) to ensure the IWF has correctly captured the nation for which the athlete will represent at the Commonwealth Games, to ensure they are ranked on the IWF Commonwealth Ranking List correctly.