Illegal shoving/elbows

Well if you're boxed in you might be screwed if you stay where you are so you might as well shove someone out of the way. I wouldn't consider this good sportsmanship though if you're shoving someone into lane 2 on a turn.

teahteshs wrote:

Well if you're boxed in you might be screwed if you stay where you are so you might as well shove someone out of the way. I wouldn't consider this good sportsmanship though if you're shoving someone into lane 2 on a turn.

but what if it helps you win. I'm not trying to be funny with this either, but let's say you have an opponent that is slightly better than you but would be mentally/physically disrupted by this tactic to the extent that it bridges the slight talent gap you have vs. this person and enable you to beat them.

In other sports, people often do what they need to do to get an extra (mental) edge whether it be trash talking, an extra bump on the line of scrimmage or a fastball inside to send a message. In track in non-laned events, this would seem like a tactic like that unless it is simply against the rules and would get you DQ'd in which case it's not worth the risk. On the other hand, if it's legal but just considered bad sportsmanship and the worst penalty you get is that opponents don't like you, it might be worth it if it get you wins in races.

It is illegal to purposefully shove competitors and could get you DQed for doing it, but it is at the discretion of the umpires to see it and make the judgement that it was intentional and impeded the progress of another runner. After the umpires call it then the head referee has to make the final call ruling it a DQ based on the evidence given. In a tight race out of lanes it is common and acceptable to kind of stick your elbows out to hold your ground and usually some contact is tolerated particularly in tight packs, but if you flat out just shove someone out of the way then it should be a DQ.

This is the current IAAF rule, which I assume was more or less the same in 1980:

RULE 163

Obstruction

2. Any competing athlete who jostles or obstructs another athlete, so as to impede his progress, shall be liable to disqualification from that event. The Referee shall have the authority to order the race to be reheld excluding any disqualified athlete or, in the case of a preliminary round, to permit any athlete(s) seriously affected by jostling or obstruction (other than any disqualified athlete), to ompete in a subsequent round of the event. Normally, such an athlete should have completed the event with bona fide effort. Regardless of whether there has been a disqualification, the Referee, in exceptional circumstances, shall also have the authority to order the race to be re-held if he considers it just and reasonable to do so.

So anyway, yes you can be disqualified. They seem to tolerate more rough stuff in international races than is normal in the US.

This is going back a ways, but I read "Unbroken" by Louis Zamperini about running in the late 30's and there was apparently a lot of intentional spiking and stuff like that going on.