Princeton Pole Vaulter should be disqualified

Clearing 6 meters is harder than going sub 3:50 in the mile.

Cope harder. Some minor contact 30 meters into the race because the gun went off as he was mentally preparing for his jump, in the time he had allotted to do so. Hardly invalidates his win or OK States. Bad take, keep the negative attitude at home & enjoy a couple of great performances.

The pole vaulter shouldn't have to pay attention to the runners. It's on the officials. The vaulter is getting his head into the jump. The only way to avoid this is for the organizers to either only have this at 300M tracks, change the meet schedule of events or put longer pauses in between heats.

That DMR wasn't even a race anyway. Winners ran away with it while the pokies at the back didn't even deserve to be there.

The question we’re all asking, though, is how do his college’s academics compare to NAU?

The official told the pole vaulter they would hold the race until he vaulted.

This isn’t the first time the pole vault has been held concurrently with a track event where the vaulter starts on the track. It’s very frequent.

Runners in a race ALWAYS have priority here.

They can’t stop and let the vaulter go. But the vaulter can wait. They won’t be penalized for taking too long while letting runners pass.

Races go on a schedule. The vault takes all day. Vaulters are aware of this and deal with it all the time.

Sure, the officials could do better. But it’s on the athlete to always look before stepping on a track, even during practice or even warmups for an event.

It's actually on the starting official. The vaulted had the right of way in this case. I can tell you from experience that he could care less about a distance race, especially when he is close to an American record. Bottom line is that is on the official. He should've delayed the start by a minute.

IDGAF if the kid vaulted 40ft, he should have been paying attention. Every track meet is the same. High jumpers deal with this regularly. I don't think anyone needed to be DQed but let it be known this guy is a dummy.

Another in a series of Norwegian athletes who seem to believe just because you're good it gives you the right to be an obnoxious a-hole.

How is the Norwegian close to an American Record?

Not much of anything. Move on.

This is on the starter. You can see there is an official on the track trying to hold up the start of the race until the athlete jumps - but they went ahead and started the race anyway. They should have waited 30 more seconds to let the vaulter get out of the way and it would have avoided the whole situation.

It blows my mind all the idiots here claiming this was the vaulter’s fault.

THIS WAS THE OFFICIALS’ FAULT!!! I say that as a former USATF official.

At a track where the runway extends onto the actual track, the officials MUST communicate clearly. They had given the vaulter permission to take his mark. The starter should have held the DMR for another 60 seconds to let the guy vault! The officials royally screwed this up. Not the vaulter, not the runners!

And since the contact happened within the first ~50 meters of the race, the entire race should have stopped and re-started. Again, this entire episode is squarely the fault of officiating mishaps.

Yes, what the f. is wrong with people. You think they should dedicate their attention to see if they are hindering people, or do you think that the officials should handle it so they don't bump into each other? It would be so much better to not start the race untill his jump. It would take two seconds. Maybe he was annoyed at the idiots officiating the meet.

But this is a 10 minute race.

Say the hold the race a minute for the jump.
They’re not going to wait 10 minutes for the next jump.

Indoor track is a circus. But track before field, always.

Glad that the common sense shows on page 2. If a vaulter is given the go ahead to start his jump, he gets to go. If he’s in the way somehow, the official should have closed the runway and not started his attempt clock.

also, this is not just an indoor thing either. Javelin runways commonly cross a curve on many outdoor tracks. I think high jump approaches can sometimes extend out that way as well.

The officials should have been looking out to warn him of incoming runners. He's focused on trying to clear almost 20 feet in the vault, he is looking at the bar and the runway. The official dropped the ball.

I get it's a bad look, but the officials blew it. He's on a 2 min clock, he doesn't have time to let the entire field go by especially if they are spread out. It was also a limitation of the facility to not have a longer runway.

It’s not “track before field” if the vaulter has been directed to begin his jump and is on the clock and is standing in a place that he is permitted to stand.

The order is 1) field event participant goes, then 2) race is started.

Given the order of events, the vaulter did not go on the track. The runners ran on his runway. And the officials are at fault.