Team USA Trails 2008 edition

[agroves]

First thing I noticed is, only 70 male participants??? That is sad.

Current results:
http://www.bowl.com/downloads/EventResultPDFs/2008_TeamUSA_Trials_Men_Overall_After_18G.pdf

Maybe someone that has been before can answer this.

Why do they only take the top 4 and select the rest? If they have 8 team members, then shouldn't they just take the top 8 spots?

Andrew

[Mike_N_Nashville]

This is my opinion from seeing similar things done in other sports.

They select 4 because the top 8 may not be the 8 best. You may have one person who has performed well all year and has one bad series and doesn't make the top 8 and one person who hasn't performed well that has a hot day and does make the top 8.

It makes sense, when trying to field your best team, to make sure you get the 8 best players.

I have also seen this option used to select someone who missed the qualifying event due to a temporary injury who would have finished in the top 8 if they were able to compete.

Mike