The Spanish athlete had enough room to pass, then the fading Ethiopian moved back on her

Burka deserved what she got. eos

Contact is not justification for a DQ, otherwise that whole field would have been DQ'd.

A. Passing someone on the inside is an absolutely acceptable way to pass someone. I've done it a hundred times, and it never happens to me. Why? Because I F@#ing run on the rail and if someone else is trying to block a pass by running on the outside of one then they deserve to get passed on the inside

B. Burka tryed to cut her off, initiating the contact. It was a desperate surge by someone who knows they are going to get passed. I've also done this type of surge often; although as previously noted, I can't cut them off because I'm inside of them.

C. When you make that type of surge, you are DYING, and have very, very little control over your balance. I've come very close to tripping on blowups like this many times, of course no one has ever made contact with me when it happened, or I would have fallen.

D. Weighing 80 lbs and being off balance means you will probably fall with contact. Live with it, its one of the disadvantages of being small. Much more contact was made by the Russian halfway through the race, I didn't see her get DQ'd.

I say all of this as an American who was rooting for Rowbury, Willard, and Thomas over everybody else and who didn't care about anybody else's finishing place before the race. This was just a bad, political call, and the reason I most love this sport was supposed to be its freedom of these type of things.

And to top it all off, I've fallen with 180 meters to go within stiking distance of the lead because someone else tripped me in what to me, at the time, was by far the biggest race of my life, so I know that DQ'ing someone that the event officials decided started the mess doesn't make you feel a damn bit better.

Think about it...how exactly did the spaniard knock Burka over??????

Burka tripped herself. Watch any of the videos where you see her legs hit each other. No way you can barely touch someone and knock them down like that.

Its retarded. IT was a completely unjust DQ on several standards of sports ethics. The IAAF has shown nothing but to be a f&cking joke this year.

Releasing Ramzi's A test results.

And the most immoral story of the year, the way they have treated semenya. They should be disbanded as a legit association.

I have been on the fence with this call.

I saw a fading Burka that was probably not going to medal and went down pretty easily.

In the end, though, if you make a move on the inside it better be clean and this wasn't.

Rodriguez took a chance but the hole wasn't there. Contact initiated while she was behind and on the inside.

It may not have affected the outcome. But also it may have as Rodriguez would had to pull a Lagat move to get around her and they may have kept her from Gold.

Tough call but DQ is in order. Gifts for places 2-4.

To the subjetc: The Spanish athlete had enough room to pass,then the fading Ethiopian moved back on her

It's OK for the fading Ethiopian to move back if she still has position. If she moved back and clipped her heels that's one thing. But moving back in front is OK, especially since they were going into the turn.

I posted the comment below on another thread. Question.... all those who defend Rodriguez, do you defend Mary Slaney when this board debates who caused her fall? Seems to me the situations were quite similar. I don't care if an athlete is fading or not... you have to get around them by legal means, not bulldozing your way through a spot that doesn't exist. The slowing athlete still has a right to the spot they occupy on the track.

Bulldozer wrote:

Watched it several times.... to me, the elbow I see from Burka was a reaction to the shove she got from Rodriguez.

This board through the years has been consistent in blaming Slaney for her fall in 1984. If we're going to go with that, then you have to call foul on Rodriguez in this race. She had no more room than Slaney did to pass, Burka had established the lead more clearly and a lot longer than Budd did in '84, and Rodriquez's pass on the inside was MUCH more aggressive than Slaney's (if you go with the argument that Slaney was trying to pass in '84 - I was never clearly convinced of that).

I suppose you can read Spanish:

La Federación Española considera justa la eliminación de Rodríguez

"Lo primero que hemos hecho es ver el vídeo para comprobar si había habido obstrucción de Jamal. Nos han enseñado el vídeo a cámara lenta, por delante, por detrás, por todos los lados, y se ve claramente que es Natalia la que empuja y hace caer a Gelete Burka", explica. "El único contacto que hay físico es de Natalia al intentar adelantarla. Con esas imágenes se presentó la reclamación y estaba muerta", añade De Carlos, quien pidió una copia del vídeo para mostrárselo a la atleta esta noche.

http://www.elpais.com/articulo/deportes/Federacion/Espanola/considera/justa/eliminacion/Rodriguez/elpepudep/20090823elpepudep_6/Tes

the spanish girl hit her.. doesn't matter what you losers write on this forum. iaaf decision will not get resversed because you are making shit up here.

spanish girl is a bull! she should be running in pamplona!

spanish have zero medals and are always doping.

cacho was a cheater.. weall know that.

The ethio chick, yeah she moved back on the inside of her lane but she moves back while slowing down from the rhythm she had thus causing the arm/elbow contact.

She gave space inside then she changed her mind and slowed down, like a frustrated driver that drives slow in front of you, after u pressed the horn making clear he should go faster

Burka must not have heard rodriguez's horn I guess.

Ok hommie. Here is a simple scenario

Lets take this situation.

We this in HS meets ALL the time

You have a front runner in the last 200m.

Most of the time, the runner instinctively knows people he feels getting close will attack and make their moves

The front runner also knows they will not make the move 5 feet around him, but they ll make the move very close.

The front runner will usually get close to the line between lane 1 and 2, so he can control the space better and be ready to react if any of the challengers will move on him.

If he feels like he s dying and feels the challengers fresh and accelerating he ll move in front of them to cut their acceleration passing momentum.

This is exactly what the leading gal did. She s as guilty or more guilty than the disqualified Spaniard

I ve sen this scenario in meets a thousand times and will see it again. The leading runner dyeing and getting desperate to cover as much space as possible

agreed^^

toro wrote:

In the end, though, if you make a move on the inside it better be clean and this wasn't.

For those of you asking what the officials were thinking, this is it.

So whoever leads has the right to slow down suddenly whenever they want and try to become as large as possible?(opening arms and elbows??)

Great, if thats how it goes you ll see bunch of losers destroying everybody else race.

On the side note. At the WC level those people in front KNOW that if they suddenly decelerate there will be problems.

Yes, if you have the lead, you've "earned" the right to dictate/slow down the pace.

The Way I see it wrote:

Yes, people pass inside a lot, but they always run a risk of being DQ'd if it does not work and they fall off the track.

Of course, she could have taken the lead from Burka much earlier and avoided this altogether. Maybe this will teach people to run a faster race and string the field out instead of squeezing through tight spaces.

That's the way I saw it too. Later in the meet, they show a front view (in slow motion) of the arms (of the fading leader) getting contact from the Spaniard. The DQ was justified. Next case please.

I put my hand up.

Initially, I thought the disqualification was unjustified remembering just how many runners do creep up on the inside and get away with it.

But viewing the incident again and again - plus stills of it - it was justified.

Rodriguez might have got away with it had Burka the room to instinctively move right feeling the arm of Rodriguez pushing her from the inside.

But Jamal was running along side her at that point and there was nowhere for her to go, being sandwiched between the two of them.

One factor that contributed to the problem was that there was a lot of equipment on the infield abutting the pole. There was a wind gauge, several large cases, and what looked like a sound speaker.

I've seen this race from different angles and the Spanish girl look like she had a hand on Burka's shoulder and it shoved her down (probably to keep her own feet). Of course the video cannot show how much force was applied

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/athletics/8217210.stm

Burka may have moved in a bit but you can't see behind you

I don't think Rodriguez went over to Burka to apologise for putting one foot off the track! They have only gone for that as its easier to prove - if there was no contact no DQ

The Spaniard would have won the race if she's bided her time - but its a split second decision that went wrong. To my mind a definite DQ but unfortunate as she was the best runner on the day

logics 101 wrote:

So whoever leads has the right to slow down suddenly whenever they want and try to become as large as possible?(opening arms and elbows??)

If you pass on the inside and the person you're passing ends up going down, they're going to assume it was your fault. Like it or not, that was the officials' frame of mind when they looked at the video.