Monday, May 20, 2019

NCS girls track: Act of sportsmanship highlights wet championships

I am sure many of you heard about what happened in the girls' 800m at the NCS MOC meet. If you have not, you can check out Phil Jensen's article detailing what happened at the link below. I understand that many athletes compete very hard to defeat their opponents but the truth is that there is a lot of respect in the sport and this is an example of that which everybody could see.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2019/05/18/ncs-girls-track-act-of-sportsmanship-highlights-wet-championships/

You can check out the video of the race at this LINK.

I contacted rules expert Hal Harkness and this was his response regarding assistance during a TF event.
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Under the current NFHS Rule Book that is good until January, 2020, 4-7-5-g.."It is an unfair act when a competitor receives assistance. Assistance includes:

g. Competitor receiving assistance from another competitor to complete the race. Both competitors shall be disqualified unless a competitor is injured or becomes ill and an appropriate health-care professional is not available, only the injured/ill competitor is disqualified."

Note: Every attempt should be made for the appropriate health-care professionals to make these decisions as to assistance.

There will be additional discussion at the National Rules Committee Meeting is mid-June regarding assistance and when it is allowed.

Hal

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

If she would have touched her she would have been Dq'd for aiding another runner?

Albert Caruana said...

That is a very good question. I know that rule was changed two years ago but let me confirm what would have happened if she touched her in any way.

Anonymous said...

In XC anyone can actually help them up and across the line. There's been cases of teammates dragging someone who collapsed across the finish. Not safe for a medical alert by the way but ok under the "sportsmanship" rule. Don't know if this is the case for track as well but I believe so. Crazy that no one passed them.

More crazy I saw tons of falls in CCS and no one helped. And speaking of CCS there was a DQ for stepping inside again. Why does Gilroy not have a rail?

Anonymous said...

How does Hal not know this?
https://www.nfhs.org/media/1017793/2017-nfhs-track-and-field-pmn.pdf

Review of 2017 Rule Changes:
"Should another competitor assist, such competitor shall not be disqualified, only the assisted competitor shall be disqualified for not completing the race unassisted. Reorganizes rule to indicate why competitor is disqualified. (4-6-5 New d, e, 9-7).

Anonymous said...

So, if Samantha Wallenstrom had helped Rayna she would have been disqualified?

Albert Caruana said...

According to Hal Harkness, yes.

Hank said...

Anyone got a spare $11k to give Gilroy a rail?

Hank

Anonymous said...

Considering CCS uses the site for free and sticks the school with the light bill, not to mention makes a bit of money off those two meets, you would think CZcS would be happy to help upgrade the facilities? But they don’t. They just take and use a Title 1 school and give nothing back. Perhaps another school should step up to host and be abused?

Anonymous said...

"Should another competitor assist, such competitor shall not be disqualified, only the assisted competitor shall be disqualified for not completing the race unassisted. Reorganizes rule to indicate why competitor is disqualified. (4-6-5 New d, e, 9-7).

This sounds like only Rayna would have been disqualified, not Samantha. Thankfully, they did not touch.

They were not passed, because Rayna was on a 2:06 pace and Samantha was only 3 seconds behind. The fall was very unfortunate.

Anonymous said...

You do realize it's not as simple as just installing a rail? How you measure the 400 distance on a track designed for a rail and one without a rail are different. This is has become an issue at the college level with new indoor tracks having a rail requirement.

https://www.sportsbuilders.org/track/positionpapers/Raised-Curb-or-Painted-Inside-Line.pdf

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