I’m seeing speculative reports that it might not count because a couple of hurdles were misplaced? Can anyone there confirm or deny? Seems incredible if true.
It sure looks like it. See the photo from today versus the one from the Olympic Trials last year. Sydney's hurdle in lane 5 today is placed just past the 5000m waterfall start line; in the Trials photo, the lane 5 hurdle is before the waterfall line and appears to be exactly on the straight line.
Arguably the possible hurdle placement errors by the organisers messing around the stride pattern makes this an even more impressive run and though it won’t count is actually worth quicker than the finish time recorded.
Maybe she should have been running in a professional meet instead of a high school meet. I heard there was this diamond league thing happening today too
Maybe she should have been running in a professional meet instead of a high school meet. I heard there was this diamond league thing happening today too
I must have missed where the Rabat Diamond League had a 400m hurdle race.
Maybe she should have been running in a professional meet instead of a high school meet. I heard there was this diamond league thing happening today too
Eugene should have added women's 400mH as a promotional event. She is the biggest draw in the US now, and NBC Sports missed a huge opportunity.
It's no longer speculation. It's official. Hurdle 5 in Sydney McLaughlin's 51.61 race today was placed about 5 meters too far away from hurdle 4. (Meaning that it was also about 5 meters too close to hurdle 6.)
Whoever set up the hurdles accidentally placed the 5th hurdles on the yellow triangle, which is the beginning of the passing zone for the 4x100. The yellow triangle has nothing to do with a women's 400H race.
About 5 meters before the yellow triangles, there is a small mark on the track (which is too small to be seen on the video) which is where the 5th hurdle for the women's' 400H should be placed.
So here is what most of the women in the race ended up doing:
15 steps - hurdle 3 to hurdle 4
17 steps - hurdle 4 to hurdle 5
13 steps - hurdle 5 to hurdle 6
15 steps - hurdle 6 to hurdle 7
Between hurdles 5 and 6, Sydney McLaughlin actually had to chop her steps to run 13 steps. If she hadn't chopped her steps, then she would have run only 12 steps, which is impossible for a women to do.
The hurdle placement error makes McLaughlin 51.61 even more impressive.
The crazy thing is that if McLaughlin hadn't chopped her steps on hurdle 9 and 10 (which were placed correctly) then she would have broken the world record.
Would that world record have counted? I don't know. She still would have run 400 meters and cleared 10 hurdles, and the mistake on the placement of hurdle 5 actually made her race more difficult, not easier.
Maybe she should have been running in a professional meet instead of a high school meet. I heard there was this diamond league thing happening today too
I must have missed where the Rabat Diamond League had a 400m hurdle race.
Fine, how about the gold continental tour meet tomorrow in Hengelo where her competition isn't high schoolers
It's no longer speculation. It's official. Hurdle 5 in Sydney McLaughlin's 51.61 race today was placed about 5 meters too far away from hurdle 4. (Meaning that it was also about 5 meters too close to hurdle 6.)
Whoever set up the hurdles accidentally placed the 5th hurdles on the yellow triangle, which is the beginning of the passing zone for the 4x100. The yellow triangle has nothing to do with a women's 400H race.
About 5 meters before the yellow triangles, there is a small mark on the track (which is too small to be seen on the video) which is where the 5th hurdle for the women's' 400H should be placed.
So here is what most of the women in the race ended up doing:
15 steps - hurdle 3 to hurdle 4
17 steps - hurdle 4 to hurdle 5
13 steps - hurdle 5 to hurdle 6
15 steps - hurdle 6 to hurdle 7
Between hurdles 5 and 6, Sydney McLaughlin actually had to chop her steps to run 13 steps. If she hadn't chopped her steps, then she would have run only 12 steps, which is impossible for a women to do.
The hurdle placement error makes McLaughlin 51.61 even more impressive.
The crazy thing is that if McLaughlin hadn't chopped her steps on hurdle 9 and 10 (which were placed correctly) then she would have broken the world record.
Would that world record have counted? I don't know. She still would have run 400 meters and cleared 10 hurdles, and the mistake on the placement of hurdle 5 actually made her race more difficult, not easier.
This sport is a clown show. Imagine something like this happening in ANY other sport.
I must have missed where the Rabat Diamond League had a 400m hurdle race.
Fine, how about the gold continental tour meet tomorrow in Hengelo where her competition isn't high schoolers
That would be good for us fans. But Bol is running in that 400H race and McLaughlin tries to avoid her major competitors outside of championship races.
McLaughlin would rather run in small meets even if there are problems than run against world class competitors. That's just the way she is.
This sport is a clown show. Imagine something like this happening in ANY other sport.
Alan
This isn't the first time errors have happened in a hurdle or steeplechase race. Why doesn't the top official at a meet do a personal double check of each hurdle / steeplechase barrier to make sure everything is correct? It only takes a few minutes.
