Lots of funny shit on here, starting with Rojo's point about a 10k rerun, the dec rerun (10 flips? classic - but what if it's 5/5?) but the funniest has to be that a coin toss is even a part of the conversation. Doesn't it just make sense that they go to a performance list of the last 6/12/18 months or whatever and see who has the fastest wind-legal performance?
Here's the thing: how does USATF go against their own meticulously written rule? So some sorryass had to write up a legalese description of a regulation coin toss, and then the one in a million chance arrives that the rule is ever applied, and they don't follow the rule? Why even have it? Have they just always been hoping all this time with criss-crossed fingers that it would never happen? I mean come on - what are the chances, right?
To those saying that they should just go to the ten-thousandths place, there are a few technical reasons why it's not practical, and why even the thousandths are only used in breaking ties and not used in record keeping, etc. But the problem with just going out to more decimal places is that it still does not preclude the possibility of a dead heat and so there still needs to be a quality procedure in place for determining who goes.