Lil Jimmy wrote:
Speaking of Cornell's throws, Kevin Benson's third place showing in the Discus has me feeling a little uneasy. And by uneasy I actually mean that there's no way he threw that far and there had to have been a measuring error.
Okay, I think LJ's [total] post is fair. But to (possibly) be fair to the officials, I feel I should add a little more.
First, I'll say this: I am completely unfamiliar with Kevin Benson's throwing. I don't believe I'd seen him throw in any earlier meets, and I didn't see the men's disc yesterday.
Now, I think we all have seen throwers about whom we say, "Man! If s/he can just pull that [the athlete's technique] together, that thing [whatever implement] is gonna go for miles." And occasionally such a thrower *does* pull it together, and we see an astounding improvement--a meter or more, maybe much more, in the shot; five meters and more in the discus; etc. The athlete may have only one such "accident" in an entire season (or, sadly, career); but sometimes such a fluke in one season will keep the athlete motivated for years to come, to try to make that rarity his or her norm.
It is possible that Mr. Benson, a freshman, is an athlete whose technique is just such a work-in-progress, as he adjusts from the HS to the college disc. I am open to the possibility that he just happened to hit his positions on that first throw yesterday.
I am also open to the possibility that the measuring crew (or, more likely, equipment) had a glitch. I do wish that it were possible to mark athletes' top throws, maybe with the little popsicle sticks we used to use, just so a steel tape could be used after the competition to confirm those marks. But I will admit that the current "optical" measuring equipment speeds thing up a lot and creates a more intense competitive environment.
Two notes: I did see Rudy Winkler's throws yesterday and they were up in the air a LONG time and went a LONG way. I'm confident that those marks, measured (presumably) with the same crew and equipment, were legit.
And I was one of those throwers who had trouble adjusting to a new discus--throwing a lot of "full moons" and "flutterbys." I finally caught one right and improved my best by something like twenty feet. Then it was a good while before I did that again.