Vtech Last Chance meet thrown out

[rainbowgirl28]

The 2009 USATF Rule Book says:

The initial height of the crossbar and the subsequent heights to which the cross- bar shall be raised shall be determined by the Games Committee, and shall be announced to the competitors before the commencement of the competition.

and

Unless there is only one competitor remaining who has won the competition:
(a) the bar should never be raised by less than 2cm in the High Jump and 5cm in the Pole Vault after each round; and
(b) the increment of the raising of the bar should never increase.

The NCAA rule book says

The starting height of the bar and each successive height shall be
determined by the games committee and/or jury. It is recommended that the
bar be raised in increments of 15 centimeters, but never less than 5 centimeters
or as provided in Rule 7-1.6.

I guess part of the issue is a matter of syntax. I read the entire second sentence as a recommendation, I guess the NCAA interpreted the first half of the sentence as a recommendation and the second half as a command?

[ADTF Academy]

"but never less than 5 cm" is a pretty straight forward remark. I don't see the interpretation wiggle room here. Even in High Jump it states but never less than 2 cm.... This is the reasoning of the NCAA meet. So no you shouldn't throw those results out they followed the rules.


In the end sorry Uhle for this injustice and congrats on the 5.42 clearance..... You have a bright future ahead of you. I have no doubt we will be seeing you at the US Nationals at Drake this summer.... Great indoor season sorry it ended early.

[rainbowgirl28]

I should point out that none of the athletes in the meet attempted both 5.37 and 5.38. They all passed one or the other.

The athlete who got screwed over by this was Mike Uhle of Akron. He came into the meet with a 5.37m best. The heights he actually jumped in the meet were: 5.07, 5.22, 5.38, 5.42, and then went out at 5.50. If he had been the winner of the meet, no one would have blinked about the height progression, it was only an issue because there was more than one athlete remaining. Because his mark was thrown out, they had him on the list at 5.37 and it took 5.38 to go.

The other mark thrown out was Hunter Hall's 5.42 (but it didn't matter because he had 5.40 already and is still going). Hunter went 5.22, 5.42, and went out at 5.50.

So even if they are arguing that Uhle somehow had an unfair advantage because he got to have a 4cm increase in height, Hall did a 20cm increase and they also threw it out.

You could also make the argument that even if Uhle's 5.42 was somehow unfair because he had a 4cm increase, his 5.38 jump was achieved with a 16cm increase, so there could be an argument made that they should accept his 5.38 and take him on that.

http://flashresults.com/2010_Meets/indo ... astChance/

[ADTF Academy]

This situation is a mess......

[dj]

hye

points well taken vtcoach.. no disagreement here..

i do personally feel the NCAA Championship should be a "team" championship with the top 10/16 teams attending and filling out the events and a "individual" championship should be a "meet of champions" conducted seperately.. with first and second team All American named/selected from the season.

dj

[ADTF Academy]

Looking even more at the results.... Why even jump at 5.37


Everyone passed it that sill needed to qualifying for NCAA meet.. Only an unattached athlete and a guy who already made high enough jumped at that bar.... It was a pointless height.... I don't get the logic of even having that bar.

[golfdane]

I am a certified USATF official, and I know that it is important how a rule is worded. If something says that it is "recommended" or that they "may" do something, that means it is not mandatory. I could not find anything in the NCAA rule book that prohibited the bar from being raised 1cm at a time, or from going smaller then bigger increments.

I think the term "never" cancels out "recommendation" and "may". They recommend 15cm increments, but you may select any increment, as long as it is 5cm or more, and as long as the increments doesn't increase. I think the wording is precise, accurate and easily understandable. As ADTF said: There is no wiggle room....

But DQing the marks from this event is bull****, and as usual, it is the athletes who suffer.

Totally agree!

[VTechVaulter]

Just further reason why the NCAA is the joke of track and field world wide.

Why is this acceptable when at the last chance meet in washington they lowered the bar to let athletes jump at it due to an officials error there. The 2 athletes that jumped 42 at the VT meet were not the ones who decided the progression, so why should they be punished for it. Absolute garbage.

[VaultPurple]

The starting height of the bar and each successive height shall be
determined by the games committee and/or jury. It is recommended that the
bar be raised in increments of 15 centimeters, but never less than 5 centimeters
or as provided in Rule 7-1.6.

Unless there are more rules that you didn't post, if you take the 5cm rule literally, then it states never. And does not state it having to do with any amount of athletes. So by that, even when an athlete is the only one left in the competition, they should not be able to go up by less than 5cm. So technically a vaulter trying to PR by one centimeter after they have won, is against the rules....

Now do I believe the rule means that, No... But if your gonna take it all literally, you got to take it all literally.

[rainbowgirl28]

Just further reason why the NCAA is the joke of track and field world wide.

Why is this acceptable when at the last chance meet in washington they lowered the bar to let athletes jump at it due to an officials error there. The 2 athletes that jumped 42 at the VT meet were not the ones who decided the progression, so why should they be punished for it. Absolute garbage.

I agree with VTechVaulter that the circumstances at the UW were probably more questionable than the circumstances at the VTech meet, and Brandon Estrada was only at 5.32m before that meet.

[dbwsportz]

The four guys at 5.37 have been added to the NCAA indoor championship meet:

Michael Uhle
Maston Wallace
Chris Roy
Elliot Haynie

[PVR]

NCAA rule 6.1.4 A competitor who has won the event has the right to continue vaulting or jumping at a height the competitor chooses until elimination by three consecutive failures.