Who's responsible for counting to 4? Officials or athletes?

Happened to me in High School, I was the 3rd leg and got lapped by the leaders on my 3rd lap (yea yea, we were slow then). When the leaders came up to hand off my teammate was yanked from where he was standing and basically pushed into lane 1, I handed off on instinct and he took it and went. We got DQ'ed.

It's a realy tough situation because often it's just a reactive thing on the runners and communication is almost impossible, try saying something 600 into an 800, its not usually happening.

Of course the official should know that the team in 11th didn't just have a miracle run and make up 20 secs on 1:57 guys but everyone's human. My take is the officials should be there to make sure everyone is lined up correctly and not impeding runners coming in but shouldn't have any power to force someone onto the track for an exchange, that makes the runners 100% accountable.

Consider for a moment a 3200m race with ~30 athletes on a 200 meter track. It is likely that an official is going to make a mistake on counting laps of at least one athlete. I think the athlete and the coach have a responsibility to run the right number of laps even if the official says "1-to-go" a lap early. I'm sure we've all had this happen to a mid-pack runner.

What happens when this occurs with the leaders? Should they kick upon hearing the bell or possibly hold off for the "real" last lap? I think this depends on the runner's goal. Is their main goal to win the race or to run a qualifying time for a future championship race? You could probably kick and get credit for winning the race, but you would not have the qualifying time you need.

Once the damage is done, there's not much that can be done to correct this kind of error. As a coach it's probably important that you respectfully demonstrate your anger. I think it's important that your athletes see you fighting for them even if you know there's nothing that can really be done. You probably ought to write a professional letter to the organization that is responsible for the officials detailing the situation so that it can be put in the "file" of said official. That way if there is an on-going problem with this official they have grounds for dismissal. If this mistake was out of character for the official, this one letter isn't going to materially harm them in any way.

I think the vast majority of track officials have the best interests of the kids at heart and love the sport. We all make mistakes and it's probably best to remember that to properly temper our reactions when we're condeming others.

Wait a minute. The teams that only ran 15 laps were not disqualified? What did the officials say when it was pointed out that people did not run the full distance? They HAVE to disqualify them, don't they?

And as far as the silly statement that 7 out of 10 cannot count to 4 without an authority figure to tell them they're right, again, it's quite common for someone to assume they're making a mistake and the official is right. It's not like they're sitting in a classroom bored and don't know how to count to 4. Hyperbole like this is just noise and detracts from your point.

For one thing, when the official makes the mistake, the finishing place results stand for that competition.

But the finishing time can not be official.

The time that your team ran would be official for qualifying purposes (if there is a qualifying time for states for example).

It does seem like your team was punished for doing the right thing.

Longer races on the indoor track can get a little confusing, and I have the same situation you describe happen. Most of the indoor meets we go to ask that for distance races a coach be at the finish line to help with lap counting of their individuals or team. It has prevented this error from occurring because you are not relying on the athlete to have to make a judgment call while competing.

Thats completely unfair your team should have won, the race officials should have awarded you guys the win

Average_Joe wrote:

Wait a minute. The teams that only ran 15 laps were not disqualified? What did the officials say when it was pointed out that people did not run the full distance? They HAVE to disqualify them, don't they?

And as far as the silly statement that 7 out of 10 cannot count to 4 without an authority figure to tell them they're right, again, it's quite common for someone to assume they're making a mistake and the official is right. It's not like they're sitting in a classroom bored and don't know how to count to 4. Hyperbole like this is just noise and detracts from your point.

I apologize I didn't include a nice little asterisk next to that fact. It wasn't completely accurate.

Thank you for agreeing with the having to disqualify the other teams. Personally, I wouldn't have completely been this objective if another runner had to run another lap to make up for the runner that only ran 3, but in my opinion, once you step off the track knowledgeably, you are either disqualified, or you DNF. It was quite ridiculous that none of the other team's coaches told them to either run another lap or something. There were at least a group of 30 athletes and coaches standing within 10 meters of the finish line.