Boys NJ MOC 3200 stopped with one lap to go

Video of the incident. F***ing pathetic.

According to the official, as soon as there is thunder or a lightning bolt, everything stops. That is the objective test. I know in New York when a meet is stopped for lightning, it cannot continue until 30 minutes after the last lightning, and from this it sounds like NJ has the same rule.

Apparently they hoped to get the race in, but as soon as there was the lightning, there was no choice but to shut it down. The athletes in the race seemed to take it well enough.

Obviously stupid. The best part is how theyre interviewing him after about stopping the race outside with tons of dark clouds near a tent with metal poles. Listening to others on this thread, they should have just waited and run the 3200 after the storm- often the wind is much less then anyway(not that that would be a consideration prob heh)

clearing the bs up wrote:

http://highschoolsports.nj.com/videoplayer/2201600/jim-rosa-wanted-3200m-race-to-continue-as-steve-timko-of-njsiaa-explains-why-the-race-was-called-due-to-lightning-and-thunder/

Video of the incident. F***ing pathetic.

Wow what an idiot. I wonder if the parents could sue him for that.

The stands were still full of people. To block the runners was totally asinine.

ugh just watching that again is aggravating. The bottom line what it comes down to is liability obv lots of stupid stuff is driven by that. Like he said "if someone had gotten hurt, who would have been at fault?" You know what noone would have been at fault. Its not the officials fault if someone gets struck by lightning but they are forced/decide to make dumb decisions because theyre afraid of getting sued. It looked like there were tens/hundreds of people milling around outside after they cancelled it and it sounds like cancelling the race made things less safe because everyone stayed outside to complain. Theres a vastly higher chance of one of the kids getting killed on the ride home from the meet but noone cares about that because it happens every day and were so used to it.

hannsen wrote:

Obviously stupid. The best part is how theyre interviewing him after about stopping the race outside with tons of dark clouds near a tent with metal poles. Listening to others on this thread, they should have just waited and run the 3200 after the storm- often the wind is much less then anyway(not that that would be a consideration prob heh)

Yeah I was just going to post the same thing. He was standing outside the edge of the tent, saying "we did the right thing", like that was going to protect him??? It would have been quite ironic for lightening to hit the tent or the ground at his feet at that instant. Ironically, he would have taken that as proof, that he did the right thing!

Duh, why didn't he clear the stands, and put everyone inside the gymnasium or a cellar. There are still people in the stands and standing behind him as he's trying to find the words to try and justify what they did.

does anyone else remember Joe rosa's work out wednesday video from xc when he did the last rep of a 20x400 workout in a lightning storm.....

apparently thats more important than a state championship/record

personally I would have James harrison'ed the SOB and kept going, and everyone else would have followed hand times were used for a long while don't see why it isn't valid now

Jersey Girl wrote:

Any idea what happens now? Do they re-run at another time or is that it?

Posted on the link with the video:

"Meet of Champions event postponed until Monday June 12 at 6pm. The event will begin with a restart of the boys 3200m."

Authority Sucks wrote:

does anyone else remember Joe rosa's work out wednesday video from xc when he did the last rep of a 20x400 workout in a lightning storm.....

apparently thats more important than a state championship/record

personally I would have James harrison'ed the SOB and kept going, and everyone else would have followed hand times were used for a long while don't see why it isn't valid now

this is the video

about seven minutes in i think

That was one of the most frustrating things I've ever experienced at a track meet. The storm clouds were coming long before the race; the announcers were warning spectators long before the race. That should've been a good sign to not run the race at all.

Even worse was that it was one of the most exciting races I've seen. Not only was Joe running a record-pace, but so many guys in the field were on the way to setting PRs and other records of their own. It was just a complete embarrassment and disgrace. I sorely wish the runners would've just tried to go around them or through them.

they actually suspended the race with a little less than 800 to go ... the lead group was on the turn after coming through 2400 meters when they started announcing for everybody to leave the track and that the race had to be stopped

it wasn't until they came around with 400 to to that anybody realized they were serious

most f'd up thing i've ever seen at a track meet

i feel so awful. terrible. i cant even imagine how frustrating that might be. that was one of the most disgusting things i have ever seen in track.

XYZ wrote:

"Meet of Champions event postponed until Monday June 12 at 6pm. The event will begin with a restart of the boys 3200m."

No, they should not run it again.

There's no reason to screw up their summer plans due to stupid officials.

I'd just move on to the next one.

here it is

announcer guy got pissed

Apparently that wasn't the usual announcer; from what I heard, it was the reporter from the Star Ledger who grabbed the mic and said all that. Kudos to him, I must say.

It was so funny when the announcer was telling us to leave the stadium. Nobody was leaving. Everyone was so into the race. Dumb, dumb NJSIAA.

XYZ wrote:

Jersey Girl wrote:

Any idea what happens now? Do they re-run at another time or is that it?

Posted on the link with the video:

"Meet of Champions event postponed until Monday June 12 at 6pm. The event will begin with a restart of the boys 3200m."

Monday is June 13, not June 12.

He was coming off of a 63 second 7th lap and picking up the pace. then he saw the blockade and started slowing down and still came through in 7:38-7:39. IMO headed for a sub 8:40 performance 8:43 at the very worst. At that point the weather was 88 degrees and VERY humid. absolutely ridiculous decision. If i'm these guys I refuse to come back and race again on monday.

all the competitors should honestly refuse to race; running 7 laps is the same as racing the whole thing; essentially they ran a race that wont count