A lifeline for Colleen Quigley? London World Champ organizers put cones out in violation of IAAF rules

NOP Skeptic wrote: Unfortunately in a lot of these situations big organizations like IAAF, USATF, AND UK Athletics have too big of an ego to admit and own up to their own mistakes...

Not unlike that orange whack job who was elected POTUS by similarly whacked out alt-right extremists. It's an epidemic!

Ghfhjhgnjjmhh wrote:

Oh please. The only reason any cares is that it's a pretty white girl from the USA.

Not true at all. Last year, I wrote an editorial about how stupid the rule was and how unsportsmanlike it was for the French to get someone DQd by it. Then this year, I wrote about it in relation to Jager . So I've cared when it happened to both a black guy and a white guy.

So it has nothing to do with sex or race.

The difference was in those case, we didn't have evidence of a clear screwup by the meet organizers that made the infraction much more likely to occur.

The rule is just so stupid. If you jump offsides on the 1st play of an NFL game in part because the officials marked the ball at the wrong spot, you don't forfeit the entire game.

rojo wrote:

The cone should have been on top of the line. It wasn't. It was way farther inside as to where it should have been as compared to how little Quigley stepped on the line.

Since the people in London have been absolute sticklers on everything at these champs (norovirus quarantine), I hope they are are sticklers on themselves and admit they made a mistake.

Yep. If they use the rules to DQ someone based on a tiny infraction, then there must be consequences for their own rule infractions. The question is, what does the rule book say should happen when a course is improperly marked? The only logical answer is "Throw out the whole race and rerun it.". Nothing else makes sense.

Walter Sobchak wrote:

She was clearly over the line.

This is running, there are rules.

This is a semi-final and determines who goes onto the next round.

Has the whole world gone crazy? Am I the only one here who gives a s**t about the rules?

I'll bet you have a lot of acne and a little jimmy

We've updated the article with a better picture:

https://twitter.com/letsrundotcom/status/895655901494784000

rojo wrote:

The difference was in those case, we didn't have evidence of a clear screwup by the meet organizers that made the infraction much more likely to occur.

.

Actually, I just looked at the photos from the Kemboi race. It looks like the organizers did the EXACT same thing with Kemboi last year but no one realized it.

So the difference is this year people did realize it.

exthrower wrote:

She got screwed....The rules should allow a little discretion.....

Multiple steps on the line are not a little indiscretion. One maybe, but she was intentionally running tight from the water jump through the curve. Only she had the brain-fart.

Yes, this is running and it's a very simple sport. The rules are there for only two reasons. To prevent an athlete from gaining an advantage by cutting the course and to prevent one athlete from intentionally interfering with others. That's it. That's all that's needed. Only someone who has never run a race would say Quigley did either of these things. As to your last question, unfortunately no, you are not the only pedant who insists on the narrowest possible reading of the rules, even if that leads to indefensible outcomes. Go to any high school meet and you'll plenty of your compatriots. It's a shame they are also at the World Championships.

Walter Sobchak wrote:

She was clearly over the line.

This is running, there are rules.

This is a semi-final and determines who goes onto the next round.

Has the whole world gone crazy? Am I the only one here who gives a s**t about the rules?

not little wrote:

exthrower wrote:

She got screwed....The rules should allow a little discretion.....

Multiple steps on the line are not a little indiscretion. One maybe, but she was intentionally running tight from the water jump through the curve. Only she had the brain-fart.

You don't understand the rules. You can step on the line on a flat part with no repercussion. She stepped on the curved line only once and it was right after the IAAF incorrectly had placed the cone.

If Lebron's heel clipped the line in the Finals he'd be called out, even for no gained advantage. Why do you track snowflakes think you're so special that you get to bend the rules for your favorites? Imagine if there were people eriuosly debating that Lebron or Curry should be allowed to be out of bounds. You'd call them retarded and never talk to them again, but that's exactly what you're doing here.

It's also funny that coming out of the water pit, there were many more cones in Rio then in London. If the IAAF is going to get all huffy about enforcing the letter of the law while throwing out all logic and sense of fair play, the rule should be very explicit about how many cones there should be, the exact distance between them, where they start coming out of the pit and where they end leading onto the track. Down to the inch.

NOP Skeptic wrote:

Mater-a-fact if you go back to the photo you can clearly see that Quigley barely had any room to get through as the Kenyan athlete (like all Kenyans who have terrible steeple/water jump form) made her way to the inside cutting off Quigley. I wouldn't be surprised if that was part of the appeal, but since no actual contact was made, I'm guessing they won't reinstate her on those grounds.

According to the rules, when someone is forced on the line, that's an exception to there being a violation. Based on this alone, Quigley should be advanced to the final.

A track is not a basketball court, and track isn't basketball. The rules of the game are different.

exthrower wrote:

She got screwed....The rules should allow a little discretion.....

Actually the rules allow a lot of discretion. They allow people to violate lanes on the straights or if you are bumped and don't gain an advantage, like what happened to Mo. But if the rules say you can't step on the line and she stepped on the line then no matter how good looking you are, you should get disqualified.

But if the rules say the cone should be on the line and it wasn't ... well then, does that mean the course is defined by the line, or the cone? If the course is not defined by the cone, then what is it's purpose?

Pale Fire wrote:

A track is not a basketball court, and track isn't basketball. The rules of the game are different.

They both have out of bounds lines which you cannot touch. Would you be in favor of stopping every basketball game every time someone touched a line and convening a panel of officials to judge intent, and any possible advantage gained? Of course not. Rules are rules. She broke it trying to run inside and paid for it.

For you. Yes you have been consistent. For 99% of the other people whining - no doubt that one cared about Kemboi.

Are you sure the cone wasn't knocked off the line by a competitor???

rojo wrote:

The timeline hasn't passed.

Based on what?

"Protests concerning the result or conduct of an event shall be made

within 30 minutes of the official announcement of the result of that

event."

and

"An appeal to the Jury of Appeal must be made within 30 minutes:

(a) of the official announcement of the amended result of an event

arising from the decision made by the Referee; or

(b) of the advice being given to those making the protest, where

there is no amendment of any result.

it shall be in writing, signed by the athlete, by someone acting on

his behalf or by an official representative of a team and shall be

accompanied by a deposit of uSD 100, or its equivalent, which will

be forfeited if the appeal is not allowed."

USAkarma wrote:

If Lebron's heel clipped the line in the Finals he'd be called out, even for no gained advantage. Why do you track snowflakes think you're so special that you get to bend the rules for your favorites? Imagine if there were people eriuosly debating that Lebron or Curry should be allowed to be out of bounds. You'd call them retarded and never talk to them again, but that's exactly what you're doing here.

See DiscoGary's reply above. Again, different sport, different rules. Sometimes you can step on the line. So it's not really the same kind of out of bounds line that they have in basketball.