Dear Rules Committee,
I am writing on behalf of the pole vault community regarding rule proposal #33. This proposal is an attempt to bring the USATF rules in line with a new IAAF rule regarding competitions held outside of a traditional athletic facility.
Unfortunately, there are some issues with the wording of the rule, and some severe unintended consequences if this rule is passed.
There are currently about 30 pole vault competitions held each year in the US that take place in non-traditional venues, such as beaches, parks, street fairs, etc. These events annually expose hundreds of thousands of people to the pole vault who would never attend a track meet or watch one on TV. Some of these events are high performance meets with elite athletes and prize money, others are low-key events that are fun for the local community.
If this rule is passed, ALL of these events will be required to hire an official surveyor every year in order to obtain USATF liability insurance. I have confirmed this with Carmen Triplet.
Because the IAAF has passed this rule, the high performance meets will be doing this anyway. But for the low-key events, this is like to asking your local Turkey Trot or Fun Run 5k to undergo rigorous IAAF certification in order to get insurance. While a road race can get insurance through a variety of sources, I am not aware of any other organization that will insure a pole vaulting competition.
I am also concerned about the vague wording of the rule. The rule says "qualified panel of Officials." What qualifications do they need? How many officials makes up a panel? Just because the IAAF rule is poorly worded does not mean we should adopt similarly poorly worded language.
Please note that there is unlikely to be an issue with elite athletes qualifying for Nationals because they will choose to go to meets that are acceptable to the IAAF. Also, most of these meets are held after Nationals, and we generally don't see many athletes using marks from a street vault to qualify for the next year's meet.
There are also no issues with records. USATF rules currently do not allow records to be set on wooden runways, and every street/beach vault I've ever been to in the US uses a runway with at least some wood.
This is not a safety issue in any way.
Please do not approve this rule. Please either table it, or reject it. Let us propose a more reasonable solution for next year's rule changes. Rejecting this rule preserves the status quo and does not cause any harm. Passing this rule threatens the ability of many of these events to exist due to their inability to afford a surveyor, leaving them unable to get insurance.
Thank you,
Becca Gillespy Peter
Pole Vault Power
http://www.polevaultpower.com/
