Men's 110H Final: Robles DQ'd, Richardson Gold?

while never having run the hurdles, seems to me that stuff like this would be the nature of that race.

i think it was a bad decision

Here's a video with front view (it might get taken down)

http://www.runnerspace.com/video.php?video_id=53279-Mens-110-Hurdles-Final-IAAF-World-Outdoor-Championships-2011

I recommend the front view at around 6:00

there you can see Robles hit Xiang twice, Xiang hit the final hurdle, Robles' trail leg goes over Xiang's hurdle.

In Robles' defense, Xiang might have been just as far over in his lane as Robles was in his lane.

I also don't think any foul was committed intentionally

I vote for a re-run

NYER1 wrote:

while never having run the hurdles, seems to me that stuff like this would be the nature of that race.

i think it was a bad decision

I think many of the athletes would agree with the "nature of the race" argument, perhaps even Liu Xiang himself. After all, he could have run on the right side of his lane and avoided Robles altogether.

But if you're Liu Xiang, and you see advantage in appealing to the rulebook (which I could easily see supporting his argument), and you know inside that you had the race won (not to mention you totally had terrible luck and your career derailed in front of a few billion people three years ago), I can't blame you (or, even more likely, Chinese officials) for appealing.

Think about this scenario: perhaps Xiang didn't even want to appeal, but his management insisted. (pure speculation here, but I could totally see this being the case, especially knowing how much of a good guy Liu Xiang has been)

First contact looked like it could have been intentional. Almost like his hand closed on Xiang's wrist. The second not so much.

Doubt it was intentional. Look at Xiang's right hand when he's going over the hurdle - if Robles' and Xiang's lanes were switched he would've been doing the same thing to Robles.

The first contact may have looked intentional, but I doubt very much that it was--no way Robles would do that.

Incidental contact was not uncommon when I was running--we did hurdles as part of multi's, and we all sucked compared to these guys, we were all over the place!

But as I remember, it's only OK if it's incidental--that is, if it is an unintentional one-off that doesn't really affect anything.

This looked to have been unintentional, but it not only affected 2 runners, it decided the medals.

That, AND it happened again. Once might be OK, but twice--no way.

Robles should have been DQ'd, he was the one who was out of control and looked to have been reaching out of his lane.

Liu Xiang was really great over the hurdles, he's a great technician. He won this race, even though the gold went to Andre 3000.

Wejo just told me that as he walked down the hall, he passed a room where he saw a bunch of people looking at monitors. The people were in anguish, watching replays of the hurdles final. We both agreed that there is no reason for getting worked up, they just need to make a decision and stick to it.

I'm interested in an official statement from the Chinese and Cuban governments.

This just in...

IAAF make it official via announcement in media area:

Jason Richardson Gold

Liu Xiang Silver

Andy Turner Bronze

Officials have rejected Cuban counter-protest.

Raul Castro: "Yet again the capitalists have put the interests of power above the common sense and common good of the common man." (Just kidding)

Employeee #1 wrote:

Here's a video with front view (it might get taken down)

http://www.runnerspace.com/video.php?video_id=53279-Mens-110-Hurdles-Final-IAAF-World-Outdoor-Championships-2011

I recommend the front view at around 6:00

Robles opens his hand and grasps over the last hurdles. He GRABS LX's arm. I don't know how much more blatant you have to be. He deserves to be DQed. This is flagrant.

what a bullshit DQ. fvckin crybabies.

Off the Grid wrote:

Robles opens his hand and grasps over the last hurdles. He GRABS LX's arm. I don't know how much more blatant you have to be. He deserves to be DQed. This is flagrant.

I love how Robles hugs Liu after the race, "Dude, I just screwed you! Here's a consolation hug."

I think Robles had a good idea how this might end up. He didn't look very excited for someone who just won gold.

I ran hurdles for years at very competitive levels. Contact over the hurdles is part of the game, it happens in every race. It was NOT intentional (watch Robles, he is open handed as he clears his trail leg on EVERY hurdle) he did not 'grab' him. It did not 'benefit' Robles rom a time/speed point of view, but it hinder Xiang... All in all, it's part of the race, I'd say let it go...

for all the stink rojo is trying to make over Blake and Bolt, THIS is the true officiating failure. if every contact in a hurdle race were called there would be nobody left except whoever is DFL. They were in each other's lanes. DQ them both or leave it alone.

If no contact occurred, the order would be Xiang, Robles, Richardson....Richardson just vaulted from Bronze to Gold with that contact.

FormerHurdler wrote:

I ran hurdles for years at very competitive levels.

So has LX. This is not the first time there has been contact for either of them. But Robles grabbed and held him on hurdle 9.

You really think they should let it go, even though it affected literally all of the medals and placements, and even though it occurred twice?

Employeee #1 wrote:

Here's a video with front view (it might get taken down)

http://www.runnerspace.com/video.php?video_id=53279-Mens-110-Hurdles-Final-IAAF-World-Outdoor-Championships-2011

I recommend the front view at around 6:00

there you can see Robles hit Xiang twice, Xiang hit the final hurdle, Robles' trail leg goes over Xiang's hurdle.

If Robles' leg DID go over Xiang's hurdle, then I believe that qualifies as a DQ as it shows Robles went out of his lane.

Regardless of whether it was intentional or not, it's pretty clear that Robles /significantly/ impeded Xiang over the last two hurdles. The DQ is still kind of unfair because it appeared that Xiang would have won had there been no contact at all.