Sydney McLaughlin running at this meet had nothing to do with who her sponsor is. She likes running early season races at smaller meets because it's less pressure. It's her decision, not her sponsor's decision.
Good for her. She is only concerned about herself, and not the health of her sport which has given her all the fortune. There was a high caliber 400mH race in Hengelo, but she would rather race in a bush league because there is less pressure.
Can you imagine Iga Swiatek skipping a WTA Premier event because she likes to tune up for the French Open in a smaller tournament with less pressure?
Golfers and tennis players commit to events that take place after majors and then pull themselves out at the last minute all the time. They don't play in any of these events because of some deep commitment to the health of the sport.
It is not difficult to become an official, but USATF does little to nothing to support, equip or help to continue to train, educate, and promote the good officials. Because officials often go unpaid, unfed, and over worked, track tends to run through people like sh!t through a goose.
Showing up on your day off from a day job to work from 2 hours before the meet until after and be expected to provide your own tables, chairs, tents, measuring devices, starting equipment, flags, cones, etc. and you could be paid anywhere from $0- maybe $150 isn't glamourous.
That's no excuse for what happened here, but just an overall issue with our sport.
I read through the YouTube comments and the kid in lane 1 ended up being a pretty decent D1 hurdler running sub-14. I guess he learned to attack the hurdles rather than decelerate then up-and-over.
Watched the Hengelo race on YouTube earlier today. Those weren't the times in the race I watched nor are they the results linked on LetsRun front page. According to those results, Bol ran 53.94. Second place was 55.62.
Watched the Hengelo race on YouTube earlier today. Those weren't the times in the race I watched nor are they the results linked on LetsRun front page. According to those results, Bol ran 53.94. Second place was 55.62.
Those are the PRs of people in the field I believe.
Watched the Hengelo race on YouTube earlier today. Those weren't the times in the race I watched nor are they the results linked on LetsRun front page. According to those results, Bol ran 53.94. Second place was 55.62.
Those were the PRs of the competitors in the race. I’m pretty sure that was clear to everyone else except for yourself, so that should tell you something.
This sport is a clown show. Imagine something like this happening in ANY other sport.
Alan
This isn't the first time errors have happened in a hurdle or steeplechase race. Why doesn't the top official at a meet do a personal double check of each hurdle / steeplechase barrier to make sure everything is correct? It only takes a few minutes.
Best practice is to walk the track and check for hurdle height and spacing yourself. That way you can pick up all the rocks that find there way onto the track.
This isn't the first time errors have happened in a hurdle or steeplechase race. Why doesn't the top official at a meet do a personal double check of each hurdle / steeplechase barrier to make sure everything is correct? It only takes a few minutes.
Best practice is to walk the track and check for hurdle height and spacing yourself. That way you can pick up all the rocks that find there way onto the track.
That's rediculous. Hurdlers aren't allowed to walk the track before their race.
"But the marks aren't confusing to trained meet officials whose job is to ensure that all the hurdles are the correct height and in the correct place." Mistakes are the mother of invention? Two new events: In the 400m hurdles, organizers place the hurdles at random points around the track, no two lanes alike, and the runners have to figure out their strides on the fly. This way, the organizers can never be wrong. Or Organizers set up intermediate hurdles on the 110 highs markers. Runners run the first 110 over 10 hurdles, then run the next 290 meters on the flat. I can see some doubters out there, but if skateboarding and break dancing can be Olympic events, there is real opportunity here.
Oh, yeah! Makes a lot more sense! And let's use those old hurdles made of 2 x 4s.
How about every hurdle has a different height, anywhere from 20" to 36"?
But seriously, a real issue here is people getting hurt. Many times when a meet screws up the hurdle height or the hurdle placement a few runners fall and get injured, sometimes seriously, including broken arms.
Imagine if McLaughlin had gotten injured and wasn't able to compete in the USA Championships? That would have been even worse than her missing out on the world record. I'm not sure why in some meets officials don't take a few minutes before each hurdle race to double check everything. That should be a requirement in 100% of hurdle races.
In the 400m hurdles, organizers place the hurdles at random points around the track, no two lanes alike, and the runners have to figure out their strides on the fly. This way, the organizers can never be wrong.
So some hurdlers have advantage over others depending on which lanes they were assigned to. What a clown show that would be.
Best practice is to walk the track and check for hurdle height and spacing yourself. That way you can pick up all the rocks that find there way onto the track.
That's rediculous. Hurdlers aren't allowed to walk the track before their race.
Why not? It takes time to set up/or adjust all those hurdles. Hurdlers can check out hurdles 7-10 as they walk to their blocks, then take a start and check out hurdles 1-6. No hurdler (including SCers) should ever assume that the hurdles/barriers have been set at the correct height and the correct spacing (or that someone has removed the pebbles/rocks from the track).
