Boys NJ MOC 3200 stopped with one lap to go

definitely a good idea. when lightning comes just get a ride and get dropped off at mile 24

there are still people standing on the track though, so what benefit does it have to stop the event? they didnt provide immediate shelter for them

Safety is #1. these kids are young, their best days are ahead of them. who cares what their 3200m PR is in high school. whatever PR they wouldve run that day they will easily smash it next few years in college anyway.

Only question i have is what benefit did they provide in stopping the event as opposed to just letting them race, as it doesnt appear as though anyone ran/was forced into some kind of shelter.

National hs rules dictate event stopped when lightening is observed. If an athlete were struck by lightening, much greater repercussions. Mistake was starting event. With tech available to read weather maps, no reason to assume race could be run, especially in Central Jersey where weather patterns such as this are common.

What spectators do is not under the control of meet organizers. They are warned and responsibility lies with fan not meet director. See event where 77 air force personnel sent to hospital due to lightening strike close to field.

Yes! The gingers have been screwed for their last high school races of their career! Good luck in the dream mile with those tired legs! haha

OK, here are the facts.

* There was no lightning at the start. It did start POURING right at the start of the race though, rather ominously.

* There was dangerous lightning shortly after the start of the race, including one strike that was probably only a couple hundred yards from the track.

* Honestly, they probably could have stopped the race at about lap 5 due to the lightning. That said, the officials should not be faulted for stopping the meet. Their job, first and foremost, is to keep people safe and avoid a tragedy.

I know it's agonizing for the Rosas and the Delbarton kid to be so close to finishing, but let's look at the big picture: those guys have long, successful careers ahead of them. Before we know it they'll be splitting 8:40 for 3200 during a 5K on the track at NCAA's... or Olympic Trials. Besides, my money's on Rosa going 8:39 on Monday night anyway. Best of luck to him and the other competitors.

The 100 degree temperature and humidity was FAR MORE DANGEROUS than the lightning and NJ did not give two craps about that.

As an avid track fan as well as a father, they made the right call. As heartbreaking as it was to see these athletes stopped when so close to the finish, it would be a lot more heartbreaking to see someone get injured.

Safety is #1. Period. And making a safety call trumps all else for these officials. I'm sure they hate that they had to do that... no one wants to stop a race like that with 1 lap to go.

What is ridiculous is the interview afterward and the fact that everyone wasn't rushed off the track to shelter. If you're going to stop the race (the right thing to do) at least IMMEDIATELY get the athletes to a safe spot.

I wasnt there but it sounds to me like safety was definitely not #1. If there was a lightning strike a couple hundred yards from the track DURING the race then they should have been out of there long long before that. Here(maryland) its frustrating when they suspend meets when storms are 5+ miles away but I guess its the right thing even if its annoying. Now there are lightning sensors,radar, tons of technology that let you know what to do its not like were in the 60s and storms come out of nowhere. We had a meet 4 weeks ago that had a 2hr delay even though the storm had clearly passed for the second hour you could still see lightning far away on the horizon and it was moving away. Still had to wait. I was at a (very)small college meet 3 years ago with about 55-60 degrees and cloudy- no storms anywhere but the trainer's handheld electricity sensor went off so we had to wait like 45 minutes.

So they should have postponed it 100% BEFORE the race- then noone would be pissed and we would have never heard about it. Once you have rolled the dice and left everybody out in the storm then its doubly(triply/tenthly?) dumb to stop the finish. Like one-two more minutes is going to make any difference when hundreds of people are still milling around in the stadium. The runners would 99% not be the ones who would get struck anyway.

Obv its easy to yell at the people who made the decisions(because they were wrong) but they were doing the best they could in a tight situation. So I might have made the same mistake in their shoes. Hopefully learn from it for the future. That still doesnt help the fact that they screwed lots of kids out of their last high school race. And yes they will run faster in college but it would be nice to be in the top 5 all time in the HS 3200.

Im not going to look at any more videos because its too annoying and aggravating. Those clouds didnt even look that bad- not that you can really tell from the video but still.

When I was in HS I always thought I would enjoy being an official...getting to volunteer in retirement and be around a great sport. Now I am 27 and having been around these NJSIAA guys at my little brother's meets, I have ZERO interest in doing this one day. Why? Because they are squirrely, creepy guys with no lives who LIVE for an opportunity to make an idiotic decision like this, simply to show themselves that yes, they do have some degree of power in their little lives.

I would venture that in most cases these guys have very little going on personally or professionally, and LOVE the chance to make a headline by screwing up a potential state record race with ~60s left to go. It is the one area in their lives where they actually have power, and they can't resist the urge to toy with powerless HS kids/fans.

vafasd wrote:

Safety is #1. these kids are young, their best days are ahead of them. who cares what their 3200m PR is in high school. whatever PR they wouldve run that day they will easily smash it next few years in college anyway.

Only question i have is what benefit did they provide in stopping the event as opposed to just letting them race, as it doesnt appear as though anyone ran/was forced into some kind of shelter.

These kids are young, and for most of them these are the best days of their lives, not all go on to college, or run in college.

In answer to your question of your 2nd paragraph, I answer, in the spirit of Solinsky: it was a big ploy to allow the Rosas to be undefeated going into the race with Lukas V.

Sucks for the people racing, obviously, but I wouldn't fool around when it comes to lightning. Anyone who has been caught out in a lightning storm would agree.

But yeah, shame.

they made a bad call. The race could have been finished...70 90 seconds more for the entire field to finish.

It probably took longer to clear everyone out since the decision to stop the race just made everyone else mad. Let them finish, call the meet and have everyone clear out.

well Steve Timko stops the race then stands under an aluminum tent to give an interview on TV, you tell me what's wrong with that picture? Their idiots bottom line race could have been finished as it took over 20 minutes to get everyone out of stadium--perhaps even longer...

excuse me I am the idiot :-) They're idiots

Also, just as is the trend in many HS and Collegiate meets, we can't overlook the fact of how poorly the meet was run.

1) There was considerable downtime between events. Especially for a meet like the MOC have these races start back to back and make it more fan friendly.

2) On more than 1 occasion a race had to be restarted because the wireless start didn't work.

3) The women's LJ took over 3 hours to complete, and the men's probably would have had to been called due to darkness

4) When I decided to leave during the women's 4x800 due to the obvious incoming storm, the mens shot was just getting started....4 hours after the start of the womens

Not many meet directors take PRIDE in running a smooth meet...WHAT'S THE DEAL WITH THE TURNING IN CHECKIN CARDS AT THE STATE CHAMPIONSHIP MEETS....comon NJ you're better than this.

I agree. If I'm the Rosa's I'd be really, really pissed, but as an adult the safety of the kids has to come first, potential record or not.

If they didn't stop it and someone was injured or killed by the storm, there would be at best lawsuits and at worst arrests, so the officials didn't seem to have much choice (except not to start it at all).

That being said, lightening has never stopped me on one of my runs...

I was there--race should not have been started--but for the people who are saying they should have been allowed to finish--you are wrong-----these kids are 16-18 and its one race---lightning kills---plus it's my understanding that the police made the call------

the people who are complaining are the same types that complain of security checks at the airport, but will point fingers if God forbid we have another terrorist attack-----someone made a determination and the "evacuation" had to start immediately------the fact that it took (15) minutes to evacuate or someone was stupid enought to conduct an outdoor interview postrace is a red herring and irrelevant--

the confluence of events(fast race, weather) etc is unfortunate but it happened----and the police/officials made the right call for that moment----