That’s a bad angle from the front. You can see it better from the side. Definitely a DQ, unfortunately.
The front is the best angle as it shows exactly how much shoulder room they have. The side angle compresses things and makes the lanes look half as wide as they actually are.
Everyone who's ever run on a track knows you can easily fit two runners in a lane. Look at the video, prior to Hocker's move Nillessen was on the inside of lane 1 and both of Farken's feet are in lane 2. Nillessen tries to hold off Hocker by sliding right a bit, which led to Hocker rubbing elbows with Farken.
Ridiculous to DQ someone for such minor contact when no one fell, no one broke stride, no one was pushed or shoved, and the only runner who might have been affected admits he was already falling back on his own accord.
I didn't see him pull anyone back. Their shoulders bumped slightly after Cole's body was already in front of Farken. Cole reached his arm forward and slid through, no contact until their shoulders bumped.
Interestingly, Steve Cram has said on the BBC that the DQ was for the initial contact, when he used both arms to fashion an opening.
He followed that up by using his right arm to impede Farken. But it was the first move that was penalised.
So we’re looking at the wrong part of the race. It was a fraction before the shown photo.
You are fully coming to terms with the problem here in this thread, which is trying to make a proper judgement call with incomplete evidence; that clip is not enough information. By itself, it’s easy to understand why some would think it is not worthy of a DQ.
Personally feel it is a coin toss DQ. wouldnt be mad either way.
However think it is good to give Hocker the kick up the backside to not let himself sit in such awful positions so late. he's gotten very lucky numerous times in the past and so kept repeating bad strategy again and again.
Hopefully an important part of his learning journey.
That’s not a DQ. Lol, come on. People are racing and jockeying for position. Sometimes you just have to use common sense… You have to really shove someone, hit someone or do something that is a very very very drastic impediment to get disqualified from a race. It would be absurd to be setting that as the precedent for a disqualification going forward.
By the logic of this DQ, Matthew Centrowitz Jr should have been DQ’d in Rio in 2016.
Admittedly, I thought it looked a lot worse in real time. In hind sight, not much happened.
Go to 4:45 of the video to see it in slow motion. Very little contact by Hocker which should not have been a DQ. FAAAARRR more goes on in every race that don't get DQ's.
I thought it was a DQ watching live and, upon seeing the replay, maintain that view. He cut in front of Farken without sufficient space and thus impeded Farken.
I personally don't think DQ is the correct call here. Seemed like very minimal contact and only looked bad since the German runner was slowing down anyways. Yes Hocker's tactics stunk and he shouldn't have gotten himself in the situation in the first place. But should Centro get DQed every time he did the Centro slide? Jakob moved in on Hocker in the Olympic final and made contact with him there. It didn't look like Hocker made more contact today with the German runner than Centro and Jakob did in those situations.
There's a difference with Jakob's move in the Olympics: He was in front.
Personally feel it is a coin toss DQ. wouldnt be mad either way.
However think it is good to give Hocker the kick up the backside to not let himself sit in such awful positions so late. he's gotten very lucky numerous times in the past and so kept repeating bad strategy again and again.
Hopefully an important part of his learning journey.
I think it’s about as clear cut a DQ as it gets.
If this happened in an U13s race, I’d be making a gentle comment to the judges about what happened.
The art of racing is positioning. It’s being aware and putting yourself in the right place at the right time to make your move.
As an American, it pisses me off when (presumably) other Americans refer to elite athletes from other countries as "the German", "the Ethiopian", "the Italian", etc. Use their actual name since they should command the same amount of respect as our athletes. And to say Robert Farken deserves to go to hell over racing his heart out in a 1500 semifinal is a strong indicator to touch some grass
Actually, now after watching the full video at full speed for the first time (turning down the audio of any dreadful commentary), it does appear an impeding by Hocker could be ruled. Farken’s exaggerated response, with his flailing arms going backward, helped sell it.
It's a DQ, but i think there would be less complaining if the officials were more consistent. They also only seem to call this in the final 100 and let it go in the first 1400
Admittedly, I thought it looked a lot worse in real time. In hind sight, not much happened.
Go to 4:45 of the video to see it in slow motion. Very little contact by Hocker which should not have been a DQ. FAAAARRR more goes on in every race that don't get DQ's.