Suhr Calls USATF Stuczynski's Toughest Meet All Year

[vaulterpunk]

maybe there should be a change, but to me it just seems like he is making excuses for a poor performance that hasn't happened yet. i wonder if this is part of his "fool-proof system" complain about everything before the meet and then have Jenn say the conditions weren't good but i got through it when she gets another American Record.

whatever happened to the glass being half full

just my opinion. hopefully she still jumps well and makes the world team

[VTechVaulter]

well.. i think on the womens side the field size will change

the reason its 22 is because there were 22 people over the A standard. so its not fair to deny them when you set an auto..

i think you will see usatf raise that A standard next year. to be honest ive always wondered why the guys A and B are 20cm apart, and the womens is around 7 or 8?!?!

[VaultNinja]

Looking at this logically you have to wonder why is suhr worried.He clearly has the best US vaulter. He did not complain about the other meets.Maybe he has a point. THE FIELD SIZE HAS BEEN INCREASED TO 22 NOW!This is getting out of hand to have a championship meet with 22 in the field.Only about 5 to 6 girls have a real shot.The other 15 or 16 are simply jumping to jump.I believe that this situation is going to affect stuzinkis jumping along with the other top dogs.jenn will probable still win but it will be close and the hieght will be low.Our top vaulters will be pulled down by the numbers and not jump as they would have. Hay man i want to see the best perform the best thats why i came to indy.So reduce the field and get to the top 7 or 8 and lets get the best 3.Idon't want to watch a 4.35 jumper bidding for a spot on our world team.No offense to them but this is not the place for them

Its not out of hand if you have a grasp of the system.
I have to disagree with some of this. The reason why the field is so big is because 22 girls made the "A" standard. Plus having a large field is good sometimes, because..... just because someone has had an off year, doesn't mean they can't break out and rise to the occasion on the right day. You can't just hand pick 7 or 8 people to compete for 3 spots. 5 or 6 people may have a better shot yes, but I believe 22 people have a chance, and thats sport. During my college career I saw Dragila break the world record several times at meets where 2nd place was 12' or 13' and the field size was 20 or more. Where she also waited around for hours. I also agree with what someone said about having the advantage of 5 minutes, when your the lone vaulter, so you can pick your conditions. A great athlete can adapt, and always looks at the brighter side.

[master]

I also agree with what someone said about having the advantage of 5 minutes, when your the lone vaulter, so you can pick your conditions.

That is true, you have more opportunity to choose your time. But the counter-point is you only have a maximum of 5 minutes between your jumps to "recover"!

- master

[VTechVaulter]

looks like the system worked otu just fine for Jenn

congrats to Jenn.. and Nikki, and Jillian

[J_Gal]

Looking at this logically you have to wonder why is suhr worried.He clearly has the best US vaulter. He did not complain about the other meets.Maybe he has a point. THE FIELD SIZE HAS BEEN INCREASED TO 22 NOW!This is getting out of hand to have a championship meet with 22 in the field.Only about 5 to 6 girls have a real shot.The other 15 or 16 are simply jumping to jump.I believe that this situation is going to affect stuzinkis jumping along with the other top dogs.jenn will probable still win but it will be close and the hieght will be low.Our top vaulters will be pulled down by the numbers and not jump as they would have. Hay man i want to see the best perform the best thats why i came to indy.So reduce the field and get to the top 7 or 8 and lets get the best 3.Idon't want to watch a 4.35 jumper bidding for a spot on our world team.No offense to them but this is not the place for them

Talking to Becca the other day, I was persuaded to disagree. I agree that a small field would help Jenn to perform better at USA's, but that isn't her end goal. She is going to compete at other, larger, competitions and USA's is supposed to be set up to help her perform there. She isn't going to have an 8 person field at Worlds. She won't have an 8 person field at the Olympic qualifyer or at the Olympics. If we want to set things up to get our vaulters to do well, lets look at the meets we want them to do well at. The meets that matter are big meets, with big fields, with qualifying rounds. Vaultninja has a good point as well... Anybody can get a big jump, and everyone has bad days. Having a bigger field gives the underdog a little more breathing room (coming in ranked in the top 8/24 is better than 8/8) so that they have a more relaxing ooportunity for improvement, and the top ranked athletes get a taste of what the international competitions will be like. Again, I understand that a great performance at USA's is fun for all of us to see, but I would rather get our athletes more experience with girls jumping the heights that will get them to the olympics from other countries so that they are used to bigger fields when the medaling meets come around. Besides, some of the upcoming athletes will be at the top someday, so why not get them used to bigger, more prestigious so they can perform better when there time calls, while simultaneously getting our current leaders used to a more realistic field?