Iowa State Meet: Runner gets shoved and falls badly in 800, then wins 1600 in 4:07 and is granted solo 800 rerun (video)

Just what was the kid in red supposed to do?

Black uniform should be DQ'ed. If that coach has other runners pulling that sort of sht, the coach should be sanctioned. School Administration should take a look at whether that's the sort of character they want in their students.

And you think all Iowa farmboys must be clean. Runoff clean, maybe.

Again, I think a perfectly executed suplex would have been more appropriate than a runner slap to the back of the shoulder. There is no evidence that was a punch. None. Black uniform kid acted worse than soccer players do in the penalty area.

Only recourse: suplex

Coach is an asx

Yes. He ran 1:50/4:04 in HS.

reminds me of how Ibrahimovic reacted in a similar situation. I think that was the one and only incident when someone tried to take advantage of him. Others watched reaction and learned to avoid similar unsportsmanlike behavior.

Ibra rule !!!

1) That wasn't rubbing elbows

2) The kid wasn't going slower. They both came off the turn at the exact same speed after having run side by side throughout the turn.
3) He wasn't running past, he was next to him
4) The faller leaned his entire upper body across and was forcing the pusher into the infield. Had the pusher not done something physical, the pusher would have undoubtedly been forced into the infield or fallen down himself if he tried to keep his feet inside the rail.

5) If this was "Reasonable" then no amount of physical contact is unreasonable.

Heard an auto racer being interviewed after a crash, about how another driver cut down in front of him going into a corner, which resulted in both cars crashing out. The interviewer said "You could have slowed down and let that guy in even though you had position and right of way, couldn't you? The driver responded "Yes but if I had, my career would have been over. Word would get out that I don't hold my position when I have right away and all drivers would lose respect for me and keep pulling that same crap." Crashing out of one race was a small price to pay to let remind people that you're going to stand up for yourself and not let others walk all over you. I've heard its the same way in prison. You either become bubbas girl for life or you get beat up a few times by standing up for yourself.

So yeah could this kid have stepped off into the infield or come to a complete stop on the track and let this guy go? Yeah probably. But what do you think is gonna happen to him when the scouting report goes out to all the state meet/college coaches for the rest of his career? It'll say kid is soft, you can muscle him out of the way if you need to take his position.

Usually when stuff like this happens it’s pretty easy to pick a side. In this case, I feel sympathetic towards neither runner. If anything, the kid who eventually fell was probably the bigger jerk. He initiated, and in the adrenaline, heat of the moment, inside runner overreacted. Without the first contact, there’s no punch.

Another option - probably not the right one. Some kid cut me off in 1500m indoor right at the start. I sent his ass to the ground. The official stopped the race. Firmly let me know that I couldn't do that. And then restarted the race. The kid didn't cut me off the second time though.

You do realize that this video clip doesn’t exist in a vacuum, in and of itself right? I mean there were thousands of people in attendance to witness that it was a punch.

The punch happened after Heidesch had gotten in front of Smith. There was no risk of Smith being forced into the infield or falling when he threw the punch. It was purely an act of retaliation for Heidesch’s aggressive/dirty racing—let’s not expand on our opinions to the point that we’re lying about what happened.

You are exaggerating. But, OK, show me the support from your "thousands of people".

And btw, "you realize that" is condescending. Do you think you are superior? Show me evidence of that.

I see Vegas as the venue for a future rematch:

Let's try a rematch of Vegas as the venue for a future rematch:

I’ll just trust the one 4A coach who was in attendance and described it to me as a punch, coupled with what I can plainly see in the video. You’re right, I don’t have a way of sharing thousands of written testimonials.

I was in fact aiming for condescension when I wrote “You do realize,” nice job.

So you’re using the Chicago argument that it was mutual combat?

I might be in the minority in thinking the guy who went down should be the only DQ.

When you force someone into the curb, and are continuing to do so, a punch is totally reasonable. At this point you are not talking about TF rules or sportsmanship, you are talking legal self-defense. Take an awkward step on the rail at 17mph and you're looking at a broken leg and a bad fall. This is self-defense .

Secondly, to those who say that the guy who went down should be DQed...at what point would a competitor neutralizing a fellow competitor that is actively committing a DQable offense be ok? For example, what if this one kid tackled every other competitor? Could not the 5th would be tackled competitor strike first? Or would they be DQed as well?

The time for the officials to intervene was to stop the race at the moment of the issue. Short of that, no. The two boys can bring assault charges against each other in court if they really want to hash it out.

You've got the kid in red, biggest day of his life, his dream on the line, his adrenaline pumping, and some a-hole is trying to take it away, in violation of the rules, and the officials are not there to stop it, but they are sure are there to issue a DQ and give a perk to an a-hole, the re-run.

And if you don't like the specifics of a punch, what do you expect the kid to do, some high speed kung-fu move? He's got the right, and the rules on his side, to a fair competition, which he was actively being denied, while receiving no support from the officials.

I remember everybody here saying Solinsky was a wimp when Merga pushed him around. Ironic.

To the kid in red, I like your tenacity. I imagine I would have done the same thing and I've never been in any physical altercation in my life.

*eyeroll*

Shocker.

Say something of substance if you want to quote me.

A punch isn't a remotely reasonable reaction to the transgressions in that race. Saying otherwise isn't any more substantive than my rolling my eyes at the notion.

If I read your post without having seen the clip it would seem as though it was some repeated infringement over the course of multiple laps that the officials just shrugged off. It was <2 seconds. The officials couldn't have done anything before dumb dumb started swinging (other than not having 16 people in a waterfall 800m in the first place).