What changed: In 2012 Nate Brannen Fell and No One Gave a S***,Now If You Fall It's an Automatic Ticket to the Final

w4x100

w5000

m5000

m1500

wSteeple

They keep advancing people for falls. It certainly is becoming a pattern.

No expert, but the official IAAF publication "The Referee" (annotated guide to the rules, sort of) did appear in 2012.

A) coaches being much more aggressive about lodging protests for any little thing

B) sense of entitlement these days

Peptide Dismal wrote:

B) sense of entitlement these days

oh gees, here we go...

The simulation you see in soccer is creeping into track.

Losing? Dangle out and arm or a leg and hit the deck.

Hang on. Not having read all of the 3,748,951 threads on this topic and not having seen a replay of the race, I might have missed the obvious explanation, but ...

If Bustos was advanced on appeal, either 1) he was fouled or 2) if a runner thinks it isn't going to be his day, he can make the next round by simply falling down on his own and jogging it in. I'm assuming the spirit of competition hasn't been abandoned so far as to make the second scenario likely. Therefore, there must have been a foul. Was it "unintentional" and nobody got the DQ for it? Somebody (either Bustos or the guy who fouled him) got away with something, unless it was Andrews who fouled him and running inside the rail was an ADDITIONAL infraction - the one the officials chose to enforce out of the two. But that doesn't make sense either, since giving the DQ for the foul (and not for running inside the rail) would be the DQ that justified advancing Bustos.

If Andrews didn't foul Bustos, the guy who did should have been booted as well, but there was only the one DQ.

Still missing something here.

I know this is harsh but to be honest if you fall I think it's just got to be tough shit. Otherwise we're going to get to a place where people are staging falls to get through to the final. Plus, if you fall in the final, are you upgraded to a medal, etc? No. Why should making the heats be any different?

Exactly! And don't think it won't happen; there was a time when diving to win a penalty was unheard of in soccer. Now it is considered a normal part of the game and players actually practice it in training!

As was raised in another thread recently; I wonder what Jim Ryun is thinking if he is watching these Games?

Oh, and by the way, having watched the 1500 semis; does anyone else think that Ryun, Snell or Elliott at their peak would have as good a chance of gold as anyone in the final? Really, how far have we really come since 1960?

Peptide Dismal wrote:

B) sense of entitlement these days

DAMN YOU OBAMA!!!!!

Was the D'agostino advancement the first one?

I have some guesses that that was done for the PR. And, then they were screwed when it kept happening.

Rethink the qualifying system? Add a heat or two resulting in fewer runners in each heat, and maybe advance on time to string out the pack? There were freaking 25 and 26 runners in the two 5000 meter heats.