Worst official screw up you have ever witnessed or suffered?

[westcoasttiger]

Watching today's steeple gaffe one ponders 2 questions - one are we certain of the so called educational supremacy of Europeans over the US system and secondly what is the worst mistake anyone has seen or suffered through in all their years of track and field?

The worst I have witnessed was a state cross country championship in which the lead runners were sent on a longer route than the correct route and thus sent off course and they lost the championship for the individual honors and cost one team the team title.

I also witnessed in track a 4x400 at the state meet run from the wrong start mark which resulted in a re-run an hour after the race.

[tandfman]

I've seen laps miscounted before. Probably the worst that ever happened in a steeple was in the final at the 1932 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, where they made the runners run one lap too many. (No, I did not see that one--it was before I was born).

[ponytayne]

I had this IDIOT of an official make my woman athlete at a college meet run TWO EXTRA laps for the 10000. I was screaming at him showing him the splits on my watch while she was confusedly running along. My dad always hated this guy with his involvement in the local track club...and then I understood.

[dakota]

This was a mistake by an athlete not an official but there was an international women's 4x400 race where the Russian's second leg ran the entire lap in lane eight instead of breaking to the curb. She didn't even figure it out when everybody else went past her.

[gh]

Re: Worst official screw up you have ever witnessed or suffe

Watching today's steeple gaffe one ponders 2 questions - one are we certain of the so called educational supremacy of Europeans over the US system....

Actually, I hear that the officials in charge of counting today are the same Americans who had hurdles set at the wrong height in the USATF Champs w400H heats.

[tafnut]

Re: Worst official screw up you have ever witnessed or suffe

Actually, I hear that the officials in charge of counting today are the same Americans who had hurdles set at the wrong height in the USATF Champs w400H heats.

You forgot the smilie, cuz that HAD to be a joke!

[Double R Bar]

No, it's true. I think their names are Larry, Moe, and I can't remember the third.

[gh]

The all-time screwup stands alone, never to be broken: the 0.0 wind reading on the 10.49.

[tafnut]

The all-time screwup stands alone, never to be broken: the 0.0 wind reading on the 10.49.

Now THAT was a joke!

[dakota]

Hardly a major screw up but I suppose this is an appropriate thread for something I just noticed because I can't see the meeting being discussed anywhere else.

Looking at the results from the USATF Youth Championships today I see in the rounds of the young men's 100m they ran four qualifying heats with eight available spots for the final going purely to whoever ran the fastest times from what I can make out which isn't the fairest arrangement when the wind speeds varied from plus 1.2 to minus 3.2! Not sure what effect it had on the competition but surely there has to be a better way of organising that sort of thing... There were some fairly dubious qualification rules in force in some of the sprint heats at the senior trials the other week as well. A little common sense wouldn't go amiss sometimes.

The bizarre thing about the steeplechase error tonight is I swear the commentators seriously noticed the officials really were preparing to ring the bell about half a lap before it actually happened so how somebody on the infield didn't figure that out as well and give a warning is mind boggling. It was like one of those catastrophes you witness in slow motion after it has become inevitable.

[Mats Nilsson]

Re: Worst official screw up you have ever witnessed or suffe

Actually, I hear that the officials in charge of counting today are the same Americans who had hurdles set at the wrong height in the USATF Champs w400H heats.

You forgot the smilie, cuz that HAD to be a joke!

So was it?
Rather embarrassing for the original poster if this is the case.

Anyhow let's get serious, wouldn't make sense if European officials are more experienced than US officials by the way? It is like comparing apples to oranges (a 300 year old country that started offical track meets in the late 1800 vs. the old greeks...). Regardless, from my own experience I never had any problems with US officials. Very service-minded and professional indeed.

[gh]

True story:

In the days of the old javelin, when flat throws were a problem, the NCAA for a year or so started measuring all throws. As I recall, if it was flat, they measured to the cord. But in making sure people didn't get screwed out of qualifying marks for USATF, judges were supposed to make notation on the sheet of all the "flat" throws, so those couldn't be used.

I was announcing the Pac-10 champs, and a guy was throwing a spear rated way beyond his capacity. It came down tailfirst. And I believe he got a PR out of it. He was certainly beyond OT qualifier, and since I was in charge of certifying marks for the OT that year, I was rather surprised to see the mark not listed as flat (F) on the official sheets, but as (P).

There was a BBQ that night and somebody pointed out the head javelin official to me, and I asked him if he remember that big throw by the Oregon guy (this was not an in-Oregon homer decision), and he said he remembered it well.

So I said, "Oh then you just forgot to mark the 'flat' notation on the sheet, eh?"

He said, "No, that wasn't required, it landed point-first."

And if you looked in the NCAA rulebook, it said you marked flat or point-first... said nothing about the front point being required.

[Mats Nilsson]

Rather funny if true.... :lol:

[guru]

The all-time screwup stands alone, never to be broken: the 0.0 wind reading on the 10.49.

Yup, the only problem with that one, as opposed to today or the hurdle gaffe at Nationals, is you can't PROVE it.

[lonewolf]

I went to some age group swim meets in pools without electronic timing systems.. places were awarded on basis of hand-times for each lane, regardless of who actually won the race.. and the hand timing was atrocious.. the clear winner by a body length might be placed third.. never did figure out the logic of that..