This year UK Athletics announced it would be using only the automatic qualifying marks to determine selection for the World Athletics Championships that are due to start in Budapest on August 19.

As a result, up to 20 athletes who will be receiving invitations to compete on the basis of their world rankings are not going to be able to take them up as they have not reached the UK Athletics qualification criteria.

In a recent interview with Athletics Weekly, UK Athletics technical director Stephen Maguire insisted that taking a team of 51 to Budapest - as opposed to the 77 who went to last year’s World Championships in Oregon - matched the "clarity" of criteria which were announced some months ago.

"I have no issues with that at all when it comes down to the clarity of what we’re trying to do,” he said of the team size. "It’s about the ability to make a final and the ability to challenge for a medal.

“[It’s about] let’s have a nice crossbar, let’s have a very clear philosophy within the sport that people understand, and that’s what we’ve done.”

Whether or not Maguire has issues with the clarity of the UK Athletcs selection policy, there have been numerous British athletes this past week making it clear that they have issues with the actuality of it.

For competitors such as Lina Nielsen, Josh Zeller, Jade Lally and Amelia Strickler - all quoted in a Guardian article by Ben Bloom - the crossbar is not "nice", and is making them more than cross as they contemplate a summer where they will not be able to take up World Athletics invitations to the flagship event.

Nielsen is ranked 27th in the world in the 400 metres hurdles this year, with 40 places available for her event at the World Championships. But as things stand she will not go to Budapest as her best time this year is 0.06 seconds outside the automatic qualification standard.

"I don’t think it should be their decision to make," she said. "It feels like they are stealing it from me. Who do you think you are to decline it on behalf of the athletes? It doesn’t help the betterment of the sport in our country, which I think is dying anyway."

Zeller finished fifth in the 110m hurdles at the 2022 World Championships on his senior international debut, but will see his World Athletics invitation rejected for the same reason. "It just sucks," he said.

Asked by Athletics Weekly to address the notion that gaining major championship experience was a key part of creating future medal contenders, and that it was in the sport’s best interests to take as big a team as possible, Maguire responded by citing the 115 British athletes who were taken to last year’s European Championships.

He added that there were other international competition opportunities available on the current pathway outside of world and Olympic level.

But Maguire then made a rather unexpected point on behalf of an organisation that posted losses of £1.8 million for 2021-2022.

"We’re not trying to hide anything," Maguire said. "This isn’t about cost. This isn’t about it being too expensive. If we had 80 people making the team at this level that we’ve set, then hallelujah, that’s great."

There are two points to raise here - and both have already been made eloquently by British athletes.

The first is this - if UK Athletics  really does have money to spare to send up to 80 athletes, then how are they harming the prospects of their medal/final challengers by adding other worthy, qualified competitors?

Do they fear that their elite medal contenders will have their winning mentality sapped by others - eating, training and, yes, even competing alongside them - who may not have such realistic or immediate podium chances?

"So they just actively don’t want to take qualified athletes," tweeted Strickler, who finished sixth in last year’s Commonwealth Games shot put final in Birmingham. "I’d rather have it be the money."

Fellow thrower Lally concurred: “"All I can say is," she tweeted, “I sincerely hope the decisions ARE based on cost."

Meanwhile Zeller has tweeted: "Every atheltes dream is to go to the Olympics. The standard for Rio in 2016 in the 110h was 13.47, and now it’s 13.27. Yes, athletes are running faster, but not that much faster. I just want to understand the change of position from UKA."

On the vexed topic of distressed athletes, Maguire’s phrasing was curious to say the least.

"I think it is fair for me to recognise that athletes will be hurt because they haven’t made standards and they’ll see it as tough standards," he said.

If he had started by saying "I recognise that athletes will be hurt…" it would be immediately comprehensible. But what is that other part of the opening sentence doing?

Does he feel that some would think it unfair for him to make such a statement? How, in fact, does fairness come into it?

It’s almost as if there is some relishing of this tough stance within UKA circles. "Stay away - this is only for the really big boys and girls." Frankly, it’s insulting.

Darren B John, former chair of his local running club in the Knowle/Dorridge area, tweets trenchantly: "On what basis are we deciding that only athletes capable of challenging top 8 are worthy of going to the WC? If that’s all that matters why don’t World Athletics just invite the top 12 athletes and be done away with all the heats? Get the champs over and done in 3 days."

Speaking to insidethegames this weekend, a hugely respected expert within British athletics commented: "I recall back in the 80's the bar was very low and we picked everyone with just the lowest qualifier... those big teams did not adversely affect the better athletes and the key point is how UKA feel that a streamlined team gives more medals- there is no evidence (not in athletics).

"There are only two or three other countries that won't accept all invites so it is harsh…"

Meanwhile, a compelling case has been made out by Britain’s men’s 400m hurdler Dai Greene on Twitter for giving young or developing athletes the experience of top class competition.

"After the race I told my coach that I believed I could win in 2yrs time (I’m not the kinda guy who would say that unless I genuinely believed it.) Being so close made me realise it was possible."

Making the final earned him improved sponsorship enabling him to buy a second-hand Ford Focus to get to training rather than using public transport, and he won the European and Commonwealth titles in 2010 - "the world final helped me handle the new expectations and pressure to deliver."

In 2011 Greene dominated the world final in Daegu to take gold in 48.26sec.

"The point of all this,”" he concludes, "is that if I had been 1 tenth slower in 2009 and missed out on selection then I very much doubt I'd be sitting here with 3 gold medals."

In the meantime the UKA Athlete Commission is seeking UKA’s position on “whether they will be willing to extend selections to athletes by virtue of World Rankings Invitations.”

Jack Buckner, the 1986 European 5,000m champion, oversaw huge medal success for British Swimming as their chief executive before moving to the same role at UK Athletics last year.

But the Athlete Commission's request is one that should be considered very carefully by those who govern the domestic sport.