Allyson Felix & Jeneba Tarmoh Move Over - Ben Bruce & Joe Gray Tie For 2012 XTERRA Trail Run World Championship

Rojo 'Ben Bruce was 5th in the Olympic Trials this year. He went to world's last year. Big-time fans have heard of him.'

As you stated anyone can enter, why don't you?

I think I'm going to have a world championship race today. I'll call it the Journey fans 100 meters..... I win. I'm a world champion!!!!

Thanks Rojo for positive comments. I read Letsrun board every day and we all know that people love to say terrible, and ignorant comments. The course is hard. It is hiking with speed. Add humidity. One reason that big names (USA or International) don't come, is Xterra doesn't pay travel expenses, or appearance fees. The prize money is small. The prize money doesn't even cover your expenses. Hawaii is a destination - a beautiful place to run. I must defend Ben - he did not intentionally hit into Gray.

Mom has good points. But Ben's Mom needs to realize that intentional or not, contact at the finish is a DQ in any other running events. I've seen guys get DQ'd for less contact than Ben gave to Gray.

P.S. What is Ben's Mom doing on letsrun. Damn Ben you gotta keep your fam in control this is laughable

Happy I made you laugh.

Dear Ben's Mom,

It would be very hard to find a human being, other than the one who raised Ben, who would call that contact unintentional. Ben very clearly lowered his shoulder and drove it into Joe Gray on the line. I think your best argument is to say that Ben (thought he) was being cut off at the finish, since there were solid support structures at either side of the finish line. He pretty clearly had just enough space, but when you're that tired and flat-out it's pretty hard to judge things.

That was really some harsh contact and could easily have led to an injury given the fatigue and the obstacles everywhere. I call it bad sportsmanship and would give the win to Gray. The decision would be about DNF vs. second place.

Sincerely,

Hill Stomper

Here's the link to the finish:

http://youtu.be/_HV-n9DKEuI

Wow. CLEAR dq. Cop out by the RD.

Ben needs to be DQed for that. Without a doubt a DQ for throwing himself into Joe Gray.

How can he not be disqualified for a shoulder check at the finish? That is blatant! Has he said anything about what his excuse was?

I second the motion that he should get a DQ. He also wouldn't have won anyway if Gray didn't go off course and add extra. Granted that's Gray's fault but in the case of it being a tie and the fact he hit him at the finish, Ben should have conceded the first place

Yes, there was contact, but notice how many camera men were way to close to finish, the one Bruce ran into plus one below him, and another on Gray's side. Also the finish structure is very small. Gray was moving Bruce out to the left, Bruce had no place to go, he avoided finish structure crashed into camera man. Also realize that they are sprinting at the end of 21k on trails, legs are gone, a lean for the line between two guys are bound to get tangled with that small of a finish structure.

Also where does in show Bruce smile and not shake Gray's hand. He was walking right over to Gray after he got up. Then the footage cuts to later (clock says 1:22:24, they finished at 1:21:58) to show Gray.

The side angle shows Bruce chest ahead of Gray, so by the book Bruce would be the winner. The race had some course problems that both runners had to deal with, crowd control etc. With the controversy, the easiest thing for the race was to call it a tie.

You must understand the race never planned for a finish this close, they were not prepared, no official on the line, no camera on the line. Bruce and Gray were chatting after the race, cooled down together and seemed happy enough at the awards to share the tie.

take a second look wrote:

The side angle shows Bruce chest ahead of Gray, so by the book Bruce would be the winner. The race had some course problems that both runners had to deal with, crowd control etc. With the controversy, the easiest thing for the race was to call it a tie.

The side angle picture of Ben and Joe is AFTER the contact between the two. So, 'By the book' Ben should have been disqualified. Regardless of intentional/unintentional, cameramen locations, small chute, or pillars, fact is that Ben hit Joe right at the finish and should have been DQ'd.

I'm not a runner by any means but I was at the finish awaiting my friends. I can tell you this from what Joe Gray was talking about at the finish he was upset about the volunteer bumping into him 50 meters from the finish. You could see he had the race and after that he really slowed.

Also, at the finish Bruce definitely passed Joe Gray about 4-5 feet before the line, but if you were at the crest of the finish dome it was pretty amazing to see Gray burst that last meter or so and take it back. Gray won that race and I can't believe he allowed them to split the winnings. If he reads this blog let him know if he is interested I know a local lawyer on the island.

Another problem with the whole thing is there is no actual finish line on the ground. So who is it to decide where it was? The tape, the front of the finish structure? The middle? back? I think this is in part why the tie was called, both runners were ahead at different points. The race made some logistical mistakes, it happens.

As for a lawyer? I don't think that would do any good. Races can give money how they please, both athletes agreed to split so at this point would be hard to overturn the decision. If a lawsuit is filed against the race they may end up taking prize money away completely in years to come. You never want races doing that as it hurts all elites trying to make some money or all of their money from racing.

Anyone who closely follows running shouldn't be getting bent out of shape for someone calling a race a championship. Not at this point. Race directors have been doing this for ages and we've been all through these discussions before. If you take these gripes to their logical conclusion then there would be no championships at all because even the Olympics and IAAF World Championships lack some of the best runners. The bottom line is that "championships" are like currency, they only have as much value as people give them. We all know that the very best in the world aren't showing up to a trail race in Hawaii, but there's still some darn good runners there. A reasonable person should be able to handle that nuance.

You do have a point. However, I do feel that companies such as Xterra should follow some guidelines as other major championships do as I have found from research today. For example, you can not impede someones forward movement and thus, Ben Bruce would be disqualified. I would say this hurts elites if a race allows something like this because an athlete could have been hurt at the finishline.

In fact, Gray was pushed right into the cameraman at the finish and fell over. Had he hurt himself, the prize money wouldn't have been enough for the loss of wages over the next few months of recovery.