rules question wrote:
There was an inadvertent 5-guy tangle up in the first 25 meters of a race the other night. The gun was fired to stop the race and bring the runners back to the line. The judge pulled one kid out of the pile and DQ'd him.
I know you all weren't there, but is that possible if there wasn't blatant contact? Seems to me I remember a rule that any falls in the first 100 meters of a race 800 or longer results in a re-start with all of the athletes.
Please, correct me if I am wrong.
I do not officiate this side of the sport so I am only guessing, but consider the following situation. Runner A violates the rules and interferes with other runners. That runner earns a DQ. It so happens that the race is disrupted so that it would not be a fair race for the other participants. Why should runner A benefit from the chaos that they caused. In fact, if they did interfere withe others it would provide and incentive to totally disrupt the race if they could get a complete, unpenalized restart. My conclusion is that the DQ was an acceptable penalty under the rules.