Rules Broken in Woman's Olympic Marathon Trials

Special Fluids wrote:

eyetv wrote:

It was a plain water bottle.

Screencap of her grabbing the water and one showing Shalane with the water bottle.

http://i.imgur.com/eXk8NPW.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/61YwveN.jpg

Poor try. Wrong point in the race. Flanagan's stride is still solid. Not so at the end when she struggled.

Actually that is a water bottle passed at 2:18. But, that was far from the first time Cragg grabbed something for Flanagan. Cragg did grab a Flanagan special bottle--not water--for her at least once.

This type of super-special help should be disallowed. As others noted: would Cragg have done the same for a non-teammate who was closing in on her pal Flanagan? Of course not.

The Olympic marathon is not a team event, neither are the trials.

After reading all of this thread and admitting not to have seen the incident occur on tv, my opinion is that a runner shouldn't be allowed to pick up and pass hydration to a teammate that is under so much stress that they can't look after their own needs and the first bottle taker not being the first runner to take a drink from the bottle.

I realize that the current rules don't speak to this advantage that a runner with out friends suffers a disadvantage from. But it does seem to smell bad from the fair sportsmanship perspective. Since the current rule is vague, no harm no foul.

Hopefully in the future the rule will be spelled out very clearly. And perhaps teammates can be easily identified somehow so race marshals can keep an eye out for teammates trying to stretch the rules of sportsmanship and fair play.

Also no warning for first offense. Both runners if the second bottle holder drinks first should be DQ'ed. If the second runner doesn't drink and discards the bottle then only the first runner gets the axe.

I believe this is fair and levels the playing field for all athletes.

It's the right spot...Cragg ditched her 5 minutes later. Look at the race time in the corner.

eyetv wrote:

It's the right spot...Cragg ditched her 5 minutes later. Look at the race time in the corner.

As someone noted, you picked a single passing of the bottles. There were quit a few passes made, including the special fluids. The water was intended for dunking on yourself (Flanagan) not or drinking. The special fluids were for drinking.

The bottle pass in the images was the only one that I took note of while watching. Cragg took two plain water bottles and gave Flanagan one. It is the exact same situation as described with the Russian racewalkers.

I don't really believe that there were several passes made- not from what I remember seeing on TV, nor do I think that there passes made of any "personalized" water bottles. The 2:18 mark is somewhere around mile 24. If Flanagan said she was hurting in the last 10K, you are talking about miles 20-24 where something was done. That should narrow it down for the letsrun sleuths who might know where the personal water bottles were stashed.

Or just get over your obsession with trying to cast poor judgment on what was a great event.

M Runner wrote:

I don't really believe that there were several passes made- not from what I remember seeing on TV, nor do I think that there passes made of any "personalized" water bottles. The 2:18 mark is somewhere around mile 24. If Flanagan said she was hurting in the last 10K, you are talking about miles 20-24 where something was done. That should narrow it down for the letsrun sleuths who might know where the personal water bottles were stashed.

Or just get over your obsession with trying to cast poor judgment on what was a great event.

LOL ... they had special water bottles. They just passed them all up while you were watching. You can't possible be believe they would "only" grab water.

Sigh. Of course I know they had individual water bottles. I never saw Cragg get Flanagan's for her. Why? She was too busy getting her own from her table, which was different than Flanagan's.

But I really do like your suggestion that athletes weren't supposed to drink from the plain water bottles. That's a good one (and perhaps another violation of your ethical rules?)

Special Fluids wrote:

As someone noted, you picked a single passing of the bottles. There were quit a few passes made, including the special fluids. The water was intended for dunking on yourself (Flanagan) not or drinking. The special fluids were for drinking.

it's pretty easy to go back and watch the race if you are such a twit that you feel the need. As others have noted, there are plenty of instances in the mens, including with Meb, that runners did the exact same thing.

eyetv wrote:

it's pretty easy to go back and watch the race if you are such a twit that you feel the need. As others have noted, there are plenty of instances in the mens, including with Meb, that runners did the exact same thing.

You are the twit. The "entire" woman's race was NOT on TV.

M Runner wrote:

But I really do like your suggestion that athletes weren't supposed to drink from the plain water bottles. That's a good one (and perhaps another violation of your ethical rules?)

Special Fluids wrote:

As someone noted, you picked a single passing of the bottles. There were quit a few passes made, including the special fluids. The water was intended for dunking on yourself (Flanagan) not or drinking. The special fluids were for drinking.

Reading comprehension is not one of your skills. Special bottles for drinking. Water for cooling. Typical race method for top runners in the heat.

You only prove you nothing about marathon running.

Dude, you are onto a smoking gun!!!

Too bad you aint gonna find support here.

Um, you need to go back and review rules.

No violations occurred.