Mt Sac and other meets make $500,000 for a clear ad placement picture and videos. It has to be a clean shot of the LOGO. Sports Companies pay quick. The meets place interns, high schoolers with their parent's cams to get the snaps. They don't pay the parents any money for the vids/photos. Fot the Love of the Sport.
The cameraman should definitely lose whatever press credentials he had, but I agree with another poster: not sure why the rest of the runners didn't finish. Didn't look like anyone was particularly hurt.
I can envision many reasons why those runners did not finish the race.
Some were physically stunned by collisions. At least two are bent over hands on knees after that. Yes they just ran a 51-52 second 400, but a 400 at race pace should not have taken that much out of them to warrant that type of reaction.
We do not know if all the runners came out of that totally uninjured. There were collisions falls, sudden stops/changes of speed/direction., etc. Could have been minor sprains, strains, pulls or tweaks and runners felt it was not worth the risk of continuing.,
Mentally everyone was stunned and shocked by what happened. The 800 at that le,vel is a very long very intense and very controlled sort of sprint that requires focus throughout, and everyone lost focus because of that. A few bad steps or a stumble and you loose enough time and you are out of it. It's not like a 1500 or longer where you might be able to get back in the race, especially if the rest of the field is running tactically. You rarely ever see an athlete in the 400 or shorter continue after some little incident because they know its over. Many of those 800 guys may have that sprinters mindset. They knew their time was toast after that.
Multiple runners ended up taking multiple steps inside the rail on a turn. Normally that is an automatic DQ. This is an unusual situation, but they might have believed they would be out anyway.
All but one guy did not resume running after that. The other runners looked around and saw virtually every other athlete standing there and realized the actual race had ended. They have all run many races before that, likely dropped out of a few, and will run many more in the future. It is not like they had to prove their toughness by jogging to the finish of a random 800.
Credit to the guy that continued but he was no longer racing because there was no one to race against. It was not even a good time trial effort for him either. It is not like he won some great prize or anything for finishing.
No credit to the guy that continued, he stepped off the track and that's a DQ! Seriously though they should have rerun the race (world athletics has rule 163 for example for this purpose)... the entire field was disrupted barring the guy that stepped off track and then pretended he didn't.
The cameraman should definitely lose whatever press credentials he had, but I agree with another poster: not sure why the rest of the runners didn't finish. Didn't look like anyone was particularly hurt.
I'm usually all for finishing a race at all costs, no matter what - but in this case I have no problem with guys mailing it in.
This wasn't a "final" for any real stakes - this was a race where guys wanted to channel all their energy and run times. When something this catastrophic happens at 400m in, no matter how much you want to puff your chest up and get on with it, you aren't going to even remotely get close to what your potential was.
So if someone wanted to continue like our guy did and run 1.57 based on "race morals" - good for him. But that race went from what, a 1.44 high, 1.45 low race to at best the guys running what, 1.48 busting their asses in the final 300?
I don't blame any of them for just writing this one off and saving focus and energy for the next one.
The cameraman should definitely lose whatever press credentials he had, but I agree with another poster: not sure why the rest of the runners didn't finish. Didn't look like anyone was particularly hurt.
I'm usually all for finishing a race at all costs, no matter what - but in this case I have no problem with guys mailing it in.
This wasn't a "final" for any real stakes - this was a race where guys wanted to channel all their energy and run times. When something this catastrophic happens at 400m in, no matter how much you want to puff your chest up and get on with it, you aren't going to even remotely get close to what your potential was.
So if someone wanted to continue like our guy did and run 1.57 based on "race morals" - good for him. But that race went from what, a 1.44 high, 1.45 low race to at best the guys running what, 1.48 busting their asses in the final 300?
I don't blame any of them for just writing this one off and saving focus and energy for the next one.
They wouldn’t have broken 1:50, but I agree with the rest.
I believe thats KAP - Kofi Amoa Prah, he was a solid 180-185 and was probably running 20mph at that point. It's crazy to think of all the far worse outcomes that could have happened there.
Gotta love the facial expression on KST in the background!
The cameraman should definitely lose whatever press credentials he had, but I agree with another poster: not sure why the rest of the runners didn't finish. Didn't look like anyone was particularly hurt.
I think it was a knee-jerk reaction to stop running: once the first couple guys (who probably were legit injured) stopped running, everyone else just imitated them. Mirror neurons. It's a way the brain works; human beings imitate one another other for survival, it's a primitive part of the brain.
Obvi, the guy who kept running didn't follow the herd mentality.
Snapshooters, Vloggers, Selfies, Officials, Barrier Placers, Basket Movers, EMTs, Athletic Trainers, Coaches, Parents are part of meets. You can't get rid of any of them. Without free TV, free pics, free IGs, free Facebooks, who the eff would know about track and field, marathons, beach runs, etc. Sure the dude is a certified bozo for ruining Inglewood prep, USC alum, and Olympian, Isaiah Jewitt's heat, and worser, the months of preparation. That's part of our sport. .
Just watched the Men’s Elite 800m (Jewett, NCAA 1-2 Arkansas Runners) get completely demolished by a CAMERAMAN WALKING ONTO THE TRACK.
The runners had just come through at 51.05 for the first lap, moments before a cameraman walks right into lane 1 with his huge equipment, and completely flattens the entire field.
DNF for the entire field. (Arizona State’s Dayton Carlson finished the race in 1:57)
Have we ever seen a bigger, unavoidable disaster in such a high-profile race? These guys were about to finish in 1:44-1:45 presumably.
I’m sure a video of the aftermath will surface soon, but if anyone here was at the meet, drop your thoughts:
Maybe I'm just an a-hole, but why are a couple of the runners helping the cameramen and shaking his hand? I'm not saying they should curb stomp him, but once it's clear he's alive, does he really deserve any assistance after what he just did?
The only silver lining is there seemed like no injury. Still, mindboggling lack of situational awareness there.
Situational awareness is the key term. I remember something like this nearly happened a few years ago when Bol first broke the 400 indoor record at 49.26. There was a cameraman who had his shoulder well out over the inside lane. Bol would either have collided with him or been forced to shift further outside than desired.
Fortunately an alert member of the infield security crew saw it at the last second and pulled the cameraman away. The video doesn't do it full justice. There were photos in Dutch press that depicted how far out in the lane he was before being grabbed:
stades like haywards fields have little room on the outfield for vidders and instead placing 1,000 high school kids on the infields with iPhones, earbuds blasting k-pop, and little camcorders. misdesigns means a collision waiting to happen!
I'll just add that the race commentary on both videos in this thread (Runnerspace and All Clemson Sports) was far superior to anything that NBC has out out over the last decde.