I guess their individual decisions will/may depend on med tests in the next 10 days. I hope wisdom prevails.
Knibb said (Feisty pod) that she was likely to excise two of her (3) scheduled races (Marbella, T100 Dubai and T100 Qatar). I interpreted that as the two ‘hot’ races but maybe it was the two soonest, and time to recover for Qatar. Trouble with that choice is that by missing Dubai she limits herself to a bit part in the ‘Road to Qatar’ final standings as she’ll be down the standings having scored only three races (and fails to meet her contract: not travelling to Frejus comes back to bite). I assume she’ll just hand back the T100 contract and merely keep her race winnings from SF, Van and London ($55,000).
Charles-Barclay has a less complicated choice, guided by the tests of course. She has met her T100 regular season contracted commitment and I assume will race Qatar whatever ($$ EoY bonus and a fair chance of the overall win). On insta she’s touting a holiday training camp in the Maldives (easy travel from Qatar) a couple of days later. How is her climbing cf Knibb or Findlay or Matthews or Philipp given the Marbella profile? She avoided Frejus which retrospectively might have been a better T100 for her schedule-wise in the prep for Kona (cf flat Spain three weeks before). I guess this competition level may tip the balance against Marbella (1500m climb).