Coaches back U.S. cut-throat system

EUGENE, Oregon (Reuters) - United States Olympic coaches said on Sunday they continued to support their cut-throat Olympics selection policy, despite the loss of world champion Tyson Gay to an injury in 200 meters qualifying.

"I believe in the system," head men's coach Bubba Thornton said of the strict qualifying process, where only the top three finishers at the U.S. trials advance to the Games.

"At the end of the day there will not be a person in this gathering that is going to say they politicked their way on (to the team)," Thornton added.

"They made the team. I think that is the beauty of what happens when this special time comes around."

Gay was dumped out of the 200 meters trials on Saturday with a strained leg muscle in the quarter-finals.

Under the U.S. qualifying procedure, he is ineligible to compete in the 200 in Beijing, but is expected to run in the 100 meters, where he was the trials winner.

Women's coach Jeanette Bolden said she also supported the system.

"It is unfortunate that there may be some situations that come up but the head-to-head competition is what is best for right now," said the 1984 Olympian.

While some countries and other U.S. sports make exceptions for injuries by elite athletes, the U.S. athletics governing body does not, and is unlikely to in the future, USATF president Bill Roe said.

"What you'd end up having is athletes perhaps in other events feigning injuries to gain access," Roe told reporters. "So you can't really take injury into account.

"I don't think that's one of the criteria we'd use in any case. We'd use an athlete's rank in the world or world record holder status, something of that nature."

(Reporting by Gene Cherry, Editing by Martin Petty)

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