PROTEST in the SEC indoor championships

'Don't try to play football on the track' to clarify, by this I only mean the whole 10 seconds of playing followed by 5 minutes of throwing flags and listening to referees and watching slow-mo replays thing.

With the current interpretation of contact leading to DQs the past few weeks does this mean that if I protest that my athlete was bumped at the start of the mile, which is almost inevitable indoors, that I could get an athlete that won DQed?

I think the only difference between the idea above and the situations that have transpired recently is that there isn't normally a flag at the start but why not? Contact equals flag equals DQ these days. So why does this not apply everywhere in the race?

The rule must be reviewed.

The A&M girl is NOT in front. Florida had the inside for the entire leg, A&M didn't complete the pass before trying to cut in for the rail. Is it a DQ-able offense? I say no, but A&M was still in the wrong here. No one's saying A&M should have had to move over, she just needed to not try to cut in on top of the Florida athlete.

That kind of JV move is made a lot in indoor 4x4s and 4x2s, and unfortunately people get away with it when there's no video replay with officials lining the track. Moral of the story? DON'T CUT PEOPLE OFF ON THE CORNERS. A&M is lucky she didn't wind up eating the track.

Name wrote:

And after the PROTEST A+M got DQ'd and Florida won the team title... Pretty big deal for the conference championship. No conspiracy. Sometimes protests happen and the original rule is overturned but people here just don't understand that.

Protests, yes.

Within the written rules of the sport, yes.

Breaking the rules with multiple appeals and bullying meet officials with sponsor personnel? Not so much.

My guess is that now all contact near the end of the race will get a yellow flag in big meets. During the USATF national championship, I worked as an official at another meet. Many of the other officials including some who have worked at USATF national championships strongly believed that Gabe should have been DQed. All sorts of war stories where their nit-picking calls had been over-turned by referees and the games committees were told. With the low pay and longer hours for officials in track compared to other sports, track has had to take what it gets in terms of officials.

Those of you that say AlSal shouldn't have challenged and that most coaches wouldn't have in his shoes, this is a good example to say that yes, most coaches would have challenged in his place. 90%+ of coaches would have challenged in an identical situation and you would have to be an awful coach not to.

Protest twice? Maybe not, but you have to protest at least once to try to help your athlete.[/quote]

Interesting point of view. So one example of an unethical coach in a totally different situation translates to "most" coaches? I am also curious to know where you got the 90%+ stat from. It does look like you found a coach who is just as unethical as Salazar but didn't you expect that from the SEC, that Conference(really the south in general) is filthy.

Here it comes wrote:

My guess is that now all contact near the end of the race will get a yellow flag in big meets. During the USATF national championship, I worked as an official at another meet. Many of the other officials including some who have worked at USATF national championships strongly believed that Gabe should have been DQed. All sorts of war stories where their nit-picking calls had been over-turned by referees and the games committees were told. With the low pay and longer hours for officials in track compared to other sports, track has had to take what it gets in terms of officials.

Given that the "trivial contact" resulted in the A&M runner losing her momentum and veering from lane 1 out to lane 2, the official had no choice but to call a foul.

An article I read this morning chronicled the sequence as follows:

--The original foul was ruled against Florida for impeding A&M (A&M had a slight lead

--Florida appealed the DQ

--after review, Florida's appeal was affirmed, and Florida's victory reinstated

--Florida then filed a protest against A&M

--After review, the Florida protest was affirmed resulting in A&M's DQ and Florida's conference championship.

It may offend your sense of sportsmanship, but I really don't consider this a question of ethics. I find it in the same league as flopping in soccer, or pressing the refs for a pass interference call in football. I wish it wasn't part of the sport, but you do whatever you can within the rules to win.

As an aside, should Florida have rejected its share of the Outdoor National title last year because A&M, the better team, dropped into a tie due to dropping its baton? If you say that's differ, because they should have maintained control of their baton, then I would say that in this situation the A&M runner shouldn't have fouled the Florida runner.

At this rate, all races will be in lanes the entire distance of the respective events to avoid any form of contact. I can't wait to watch 14 heats of 9 athletes each with a full lap stagger in the 10k. We want to avoid touching at a all costs!

Goucher Needles wrote:

At this rate, all races will be in lanes the entire distance of the respective events to avoid any form of contact. I can't wait to watch 14 heats of 9 athletes each with a full lap stagger in the 10k. We want to avoid touching at a all costs!

How long would it take to mark the track for splits in a 10,000m in lanes all the way race, 100 hours?

And what would the opening stagger actually be for lane eight?

Hey Buddy take my splits !!! wrote:

Goucher Needles wrote:

At this rate, all races will be in lanes the entire distance of the respective events to avoid any form of contact. I can't wait to watch 14 heats of 9 athletes each with a full lap stagger in the 10k. We want to avoid touching at a all costs!

How long would it take to mark the track for splits in a 10,000m in lanes all the way race, 100 hours?

And what would the opening stagger actually be for lane eight?

Lane 8 is ~453 meters. So a stagger for a 10K (25 laps) would be starting 1325 meters in front of someone running in lane 1.

I think this would be a hilarious race.

wowzers wrote:

That is a cowardly move by the coach to call for a foul that didn't impact the results of the race. Assuming that it's true that it didn't impact the results of the race like you are telling us.

This ^^

As an aside, should Florida have rejected its share of the Outdoor National title last year because A&M, the better team, dropped into a tie due to dropping its baton? If you say that's differ, because they should have maintained control of their baton, then I would say that in this situation the A&M runner shouldn't have fouled the Florida runner. - quote

OR...could we say it's a small piece of karma for Texas A&M winning 2010 Men's NCAA Outdoors in Eugene for a totally blown call in the men's shot put. Nowhere near the screw up as an NCAA title which was lost however.

From Flotrack c/o Aggie Sports

"First, an umpire reported an infraction during the final turn, saying that Florida had impeded A&M, disqualifying the Gators. But video evidence overturned that decision. Then Florida filed a protest, saying A&M had instead impeded the Florida runner. That protest was upheld, disqualifying A&M from the race. A&M subsequently protested to the Jury of Appeals, the final authority at the meet, but that protest was not upheld.”

Arkansas should have filed an appeal that both A&M and Florida impeded each other and hence both teams should be disqualified. Then Arkansas would have won.

Where are Lauren Fleshman's tweets of outrage over this? Isn't she going to call for the U of F runners to stand up to their coach and retract the protest?

The thing I don't understand is how the A&M runner lets the Florida girl pass her on the inside. One of the commentators pointed this out as well. Quite honestly that is a stupid tactical error that deserves to end up in a loss (of the race) every time. Everyone seems to think that it isn't fair to "cut off" someone but that is part of racing. She gets around the Florida girl to the point she is clearly leading and starts to move in but only to the outer edge of the lane. You shouldn't be out there if you are going to let people squeeze by you from the inside. There was just too much room left open.

Maybe a goofy race like this would get people to watch. The sport is a little stale and could use some fun injected into it. Whining about someone stepping on your heal is not the way to go.

Name wrote:

Hey Buddy take my splits !!! wrote:

How long would it take to mark the track for splits in a 10,000m in lanes all the way race, 100 hours?

And what would the opening stagger actually be for lane eight?

Lane 8 is ~453 meters. So a stagger for a 10K (25 laps) would be starting 1325 meters in front of someone running in lane 1.

I think this would be a hilarious race.

wejo wrote:

Someone explain how she gets DQd.

It's here:

http://espn.go.com/watchespn/player/_/id/1647552/size/condensed/

4:38:20 of that video

The A&M girl is in front. The Florida girl comes up from behind her and initiates contact and the A&M girl is the one who gets DQd. I don't get it. Yes the A&M girl wails out her arms but she lost her balance because the other runner initiated contact. I don't think the A&M girl should have to move over and let the Florida girl pass her on the inside.

What part of 'she was interfered with' does not make any you. It was absolutely stupid on the part of the Texas A&M runner; she did not keep in mind what the objective of the race was. She cut in, she did not have the room, she fouled the other runner who was interfered with.

Not making a difference in the final outcome of the race is not the criteria for an infraction.

wejo wrote:

Someone explain how she gets DQd.

It's here:

http://espn.go.com/watchespn/player/_/id/1647552/size/condensed/

4:38:20 of that video

The A&M girl is in front. The Florida girl comes up from behind her and initiates contact and the A&M girl is the one who gets DQd. I don't get it. Yes the A&M girl wails out her arms but she lost her balance because the other runner initiated contact. I don't think the A&M girl should have to move over and let the Florida girl pass her on the inside.

The A&M runner did not have a right to the inside lane. She left herself open on the inside.