Unbelievable: USATF will run 9 person 800 final with a waterfall start instead of having 2 share a lane

Why can't they just put Shaq in the final? Ugh 😞😭😠

This is an outrage.

!!

I wish Olympic officials would do our meets. Then they'd be under the same rules.

I don't think you see IAAF officials advance anyone without a DQ.

And I've never seen a waterfall 800 in an IAAF meet.

However, long term I wonder if the sport would be more popular if no event with turns had lanes. So in the 200, 400, 800, etc everyone broke for the pole like short track skating.

wejo wrote:

I wish Olympic officials would do our meets. Then they'd be under the same rules.

I don't think you see IAAF officials advance anyone without a DQ.

And I've never seen a waterfall 800 in an IAAF meet.

However, long term I wonder if the sport would be more popular if no event with turns had lanes. So in the 200, 400, 800, etc everyone broke for the pole like short track skating.

It's funny how your response to a bad decision by USATF is to propose something infinitely worse

$10 says Jock and Engels battle for DFL in this final. Neither should be there. I'm rooting for Engels to be DFL since he never should have been given a ticket into the final!

Am I reading this correctly? Craig Engels 1:55.40? How did he make the final?

Yo Wejo why not make the 200 guys take the water pit jump while you are at it?

Lol this is sooooooooo dumb. If I were Berian I would be so pissed right now. Any of those other 5 guys could completely screw up his strategy. If Berian was on the outside, he'd have a nice advantage.

One of Johnson/Loxsom/Sowinski will probably try to do it. They'll blast out the first 70m and get in front of Berian, in between lane 1/2. Then he'll have to make a pass on them between 100m and 200m, which will use up just enough energy. Then the last 200m, he'll feel a little more uncomfortable than usual. This will be enough for either Sowinski or Murphy to grab the win.

Moral of the story: eff you Craig Engel's coach being an insider (If I were Engels i'd do the same thing though)

There was a televised meet this year, maybe from California, that had a women's event with an alley start. Except they had 4 alleys: Lanes 1 and 2 were the first alley, lanes 3 and 4 were the second alley, etc.

It worked (nobody fell down) and seemed like a logical way to get up to 12 runners going in an 800m race. I have never seen it any other time.

They could also move the event to a 9 lane track if there is one nearby and show it on the big screens at Hayward. People who paid to see the men's 800 final might be irritated, though!

This changes the race completely and agree that Berian suffers the most from it. Not even sure why they don;t have a 5 - 4 split between the two waterfall starts!

Advice to Berian would be to hit the first 200m in 238-24.1 and separate himself from the pack early. Murphy will need to go out harder than he wants, otherwise he might find himself in 7th off the break. That said, that might be the perfect spot if you are aiming for top 3 as I'm sure a number of the front runners will die in the last 100m

The athletes probably won't find out until they're on the starting line.

It will be like Bumper Cars in the inside alley.

Really sucks for athletes to get such short notice.

I agree.

Dumb idea to have a double water fall with only 9 people in the 800.

Just put two people in lane one. The last q plus Engels.

Much better than 6 people in lane one plus 3 in lane 4.

All of these are better options. In order of preference

1) 2 people in one lane is a simple solution. Just do a random draw to see which guy.

2) Everyone in lanes except for Engels who starts in lane 3 our more outside on the waterfall start line. This just gives the guy in lane 1 a little space the first few steps.

3) Waterfall but 5 and 4.

asdffdsfdsfhjhjhjhfdsfdsfdsfds wrote:

$10 says Jock and Engels battle for DFL in this final. Neither should be there. I'm rooting for Engels to be DFL since he never should have been given a ticket into the final!

You mean the same Jock who would've beaten Shaq fair and square, fall or no fall, in the semi?

You Shaq Walker stans are delusional.

Re - if 800m or less no turn lane

Airport runway style - yes!

I don't get why you all think this is such a big deal.

Gss wrote:

I don't get why you all think this is such a big deal.

For one thing, the guys who like to won't be able to go out of blocks (not allowed if you aren't starting in-lane).

You are not allowed to use blocks in any race longer than 400m, no matter if it starts in lanes or not.

It shouldn't be a big deal but it is rare to run like this and I don't know why they would mess with this in an important situation.

Being that it is a rabbitless race the fear is a slow start could cause traffic issues with a waterfall start.

A good strategy now would be to get off ahead of Berian and then the jam on the brakes.