Comprehension wrote:
rojo wrote:People. Do you not read the front page? We went over this extensively in our race recap:
http://www.letsrun.com/news/2015/06/emma-coburn-sets-meet-record-in-womens-steeple-as-stephanie-garcia-and-colleen-quigley-pr-and-punch-their-tickets-to-beijing/What Coburn did by rule is supposed to be a DQ.
People aren't reading the rule correctly. The rule says if you step over the curb on a turn, you are DQd unless you were pushed or forced inside the curb.
No. The rule is very clear. It says that if an umpire reports that you stepped over the line then you are DQd. You can't be DQd simply cos some guy on a messageboard says you stepped over the line.
No umpire reported that she stepped over the line, she wasn't DQd, I don't see which rule is meant to have been broken here.
Relying on one human, fallible umpire to see and call all potential violations within his/her purview is exactly why there is now video replay in most major sports. Heck, if track was run like golf, some TV viewer/messageboard dude could actually have called in and forced a ruling to be made - it's happened numerous times.
In fact, if track was run like golf, Coburn would be honor bound to DQ herself. And the fact she didn't gain a material advantage from her 2 steps inside the curb wouldn't matter; there are all sorts of golf rules that don't depend on an advantage being gained to be considered violated. Neither does the rule in question here. Perhaps it should be written that way for the future, but that has nothing to do with whether the rule as presently written was violated.
What bothers me is not Coburn going (it would be a tragedy if she didn't) or O'Connor not going, it's that there is no transparency to this situation - par for the course for USATF. A rule, as written, was clearly violated. The only possible penalty for breaking that rule is a DQ. Millions (well, at least thousands) saw it. Yet USATF has no explanation or even acknowledgment that there's a legitimate issue here. There should be a DQ, an appeal, a discussion, and a ruling, and it should all be out in the open. Won't happen, though, because USATF.