Unofficial 2018 DIII Track Thread

an advocate of the devil wrote:

stop this madness wrote:

This alone should be a red flag. Hope Wesley and North Central fight this because that is ridiculous.

I hate to attack the kick but come on. Just watch the last 100m. He comes off the curve absolutely gassed, but with no lactic acid his blades literally carry him down the home strait to run down a guy who split 46(!!)

No chance Wesley and North Cntrl fight this. What do they say?

In this culture, there's no discussing this stuff - you're automatically a jerk, a bigot. Semenya has more testosterone than Lewis Johnson, doesn't matter. Digby is gassed over 200m, still walks down a kid who splits low-46, doesn't matter. Not when dudes like asdfiasfog over there are ready to name Digby the King of the Earth for his bravery.

I never called anyone a bigot. I first came into this thread because a lot of people were hating on Digby the man (the "fck Digby" post).

Now I am hoping that people withhold their judgement that is based on pure speculation and treat the issue with a little more grace and empathy.

an advocate of the devil wrote:

stop this madness wrote:

This alone should be a red flag. Hope Wesley and North Central fight this because that is ridiculous.

I hate to attack the kick but come on. Just watch the last 100m. He comes off the curve absolutely gassed, but with no lactic acid his blades literally carry him down the home strait to run down a guy who split 46(!!)

No chance Wesley and North Cntrl fight this. What do they say?

In this culture, there's no discussing this stuff - you're automatically a jerk, a bigot. Semenya has more testosterone than Lewis Johnson, doesn't matter. Digby is gassed over 200m, still walks down a kid who splits low-46, doesn't matter. Not when dudes like asdfiasfog over there are ready to name Digby the King of the Earth for his bravery.

FWIW I actually agree that Semenya should have to limit her testosterone or compete in a different classification! However, her advantage has been proven with solid evidence and is now written into the rule books.

asdfiasfog wrote:

an advocate of the devil wrote:

Have you ever run a 400?

I have.

There was one athlete who was speeding up between 200m-300m. There was one athlete who was speeding up between 300m-400m. I'll give you one guess who it was.

Yes I have run many 400's. I've even raced a few.

Do you mean sped up relative to the rest of the field? You know who else does that? Wade van Niekerk.

Digby running fast is not evidence of an unfair advantage. His 44.73 was also a relay split from a running start, which could be significantly less than an actual 400.

All I am saying is it is not our place to debate this. We have no evidence and we are not experts.

You claim that Van Niekerk "speeds up" from 200-400m,but he actually slows down less than the rest of the field, giving the illusion of him accelerating and pulling away from the rest of the field. Digby actually speeds up/runs the same pace, which is something that literally no other runner does. When we have a data point that does not fit what is normal, we call that "evidence".

Source:

Ummmmmmmm wrote:

Digby actually speeds up/runs the same pace, which is something that literally no other runner does.

It's almost as if..he's got some sort of..non-biological apparatus..which helps him not suffer the same kind of lactic acid buildup...

I can't believe someone would argue that it doesn't give him a huge, huge advantage.

I was actually very careful in saying that WVN speeds up RELATIVE to the rest of the field, in that he does not slow down as much.

However, I will concede that if Digby has an absolute increase in speed, i.e. he doesn't just pull away from the field, that is one interesting data point.

One way to test this would be to check if ALL 400m athletes wearing prosthetics speed up after 200. If just Digby does it, it could just be his running style.

asdfiasfog wrote:

an advocate of the devil wrote:

Have you ever run a 400?

I have.

There was one athlete who was speeding up between 200m-300m. There was one athlete who was speeding up between 300m-400m. I'll give you one guess who it was.

Yes I have run many 400's. I've even raced a few.

Do you mean sped up relative to the rest of the field? You know who else does that? Wade van Niekerk.

Digby running fast is not evidence of an unfair advantage. His 44.73 was also a relay split from a running start, which could be significantly less than an actual 400.

All I am saying is it is not our place to debate this. We have no evidence and we are not experts.

How is an FAT relay split less than 400m? That's not possible. That's not how it works buddy. This isn't your high school coach timing the baton, this is a camera literally timing when their body crosses infront of it

ThatAverageRunner wrote:

asdfiasfog wrote:

Yes I have run many 400's. I've even raced a few.

Do you mean sped up relative to the rest of the field? You know who else does that? Wade van Niekerk.

Digby running fast is not evidence of an unfair advantage. His 44.73 was also a relay split from a running start, which could be significantly less than an actual 400.

All I am saying is it is not our place to debate this. We have no evidence and we are not experts.

How is an FAT relay split less than 400m? That's not possible. That's not how it works buddy. This isn't your high school coach timing the baton, this is a camera literally timing when their body crosses infront of it

Sorry, you're right, I miss-typed. However, it doesn't change the fact that a running start lops a lot of time off of a relay split.

Apparently some coaches timed Didby at 12.X at the 100, so he would have closed in 32.X the last 300. Advantage or denial, once the train gets moving stay off the tracks.

Logan McKenzie did not compete at nationals because of a stress fracture. He is not considered a freshman cause Berea just entered the NCAA (which this was their first year in ALL sports) please learn the rules before you post. He is actually considered a soph. Because of having to sit out most of XC and all of track because of blood clots in his lungs last year.

weird beard wrote:

In a parallel, more fair universe, Kalieta stops once Digby glides by him, turns around and tackles the dude coming in Bethel. They both DQed, NC finishes 2nd and takes their National title.

No but seriously, who gets screwed more: Wesley, who gets a 4x4 title stolen from them, or NC, who gets the team title stolen from them, even though they blew multiple chances to get more points and put it away earlier?

Good point. If Winder had won PV like he always did before, NCC are champs (we should be talking about that, btw). If a distance runner not named Dhruvil Patel scores anything in any event, NCC at least ties for the championship. NCC lost because they underperformed. Dan Evers is just as much to "blame" for NCC losing as Digby.

Wesley, however, is a different story. Fortunately, three of the four guys on that relay are freshman. I think/hope they will get their title at some point.

LAX, Rowan, NCC all underperformed and could have easily been champions. The meet looks a ton different without Digby however. He’s a competitor but I’d like the Mount Union supporters to answer how someone that chunky can ran 46.07 and split 44.72. No one in the history of track & field has looked that big and run that fast. Also, Digby seems to sandbag up until the National Meet. He was running consistent 48.X open 400’s up until 1 week before Nationals. Dropping 2.X seconds in the open 400 and probably 3+ seconds in a 400 split is hard to wrap your mind around.

He deserves to compete, but should do so against like bodied individuals. This is why wheel chair athletes don’t own the marathon world record despite being “disabled”.

Digzzz wrote:

Apparently some coaches timed Didby at 12.X at the 100, so he would have closed in 32.X the last 300. Advantage or denial, once the train gets moving stay off the tracks.

This is odd if true. So does it take him longer to accelerate because of the blades, or is he just going out too slow? Could he split 43 with faster first 100?

Lots of dumb Monday morning armchair comments here. Digby negative splits in everything because it’s extremely difficult to accelerate in blades. The guy probably couldn’t run any faster than an 11-mid FAT 100 even though he can run a 44.7 400 with a running start. In normal circumstances, someone would probably have to have sub 10.5 speed to run what he runs in the 400. That’s not because the blades make him faster, it’s because there a lot of time lost on the front end.

The lower legs also don’t have nearly as much to do with sprinting as most think. Most of the power comes from the hips, hamstrings, and quads. In that’s respect, he runs just like everyone else. And, if any of you actually watch his races, he really struggles to walk after and sometimes even has to be helped off the track. Just like any other runner that pushes themselves as hard as he does.

If you think artificial legs actually give an ADVANTAGE, you better have some proof beyond the claim that he must be cheating because he wins, which is an infantile argument based in jealousy.

I really believe that if Digby was given the same advantages that most of us share, he would probably be running 44 seconds in the open if not faster. We’re talking about a Paralympian here. That’s why he wins - he’s among the best on the planet with his condition.

Him not having that “10.5” speed essentially shows that he has an unfair advantage though. How many 2 legged, 400m specific runners do you know that “make up time lost on the front end?” None. The 400 is run with a positive split. His blades allow him to continually accelerate to the point of even splitting or likely negatively splitting 400’s. Again no proof since we don’t have 100’s broken down. Even if it’s an even split does he look aerobically/anaerobically fit enough to do that? I would say no, he is thick. He is impressive but he has an unregulated advantage in the NCAA.

No, it doesn’t. It simply means he’s losing time on the front end that he doesn’t get back, at least not fully. That’s the exact opposite of an unfair advantage. That’s a DISADVANTAGE. My point is that he may lose a second for the first 100 meters, but then he can run with the expected top end speed of a 10.5 guy running the 400 for the remaining 300 meters.

Therefore, he’s likely running slower than he would if he didn’t have blades. The difference between the open 400 time and his split helps to demonstrate this. Typically, your difference between an open and a split in the 400 is anywhere from half a second to a second. For Digby, it’s 1.3 seconds, showing the acceleration phase hinders him greatly. He loses a third of a second just from that 20 meter exchange zone.

And I don’t even know where this argument is coming from that he’s thick. He’s pretty strong looking. He’s definitely not “chubby” as someone else said. Similar body type to Justin Gatlin really. Plenty of people with his body type have run solid 400 times. Usually don’t see it in the 800 though and see it more in the 100 and 200.

Ok A.J ??

Sprinter Guy wrote:

And I don’t even know where this argument is coming from that he’s thick. He’s pretty strong looking. He’s definitely not “chubby” as someone else said. Similar body type to Justin Gatlin really. Plenty of people with his body type have run solid 400 times. Usually don’t see it in the 800 though and see it more in the 100 and 200.

Transfer to a D1 school, AJ. See how long it takes for a real coach to put up with your cheating.