Worst official screw up you have ever witnessed or suffered?

[Andrea_T]

It wasn't Kotylarova, it was a different athlete. Cant remember her name off the top of my head but I have it in a mag at home, I'll look it up

I cant find my mags but I think it was Vera Sychugova. I may be wrong though!

[Powell]

Indoor meet at Mizzou last year (2006) one row of hurdles in the men's hurdles was on the wrong line. The entire field fell on their face at the same time. It was pretty entertaining for the crowd, not so much for the runners.

That also happened in the 110mH at the Polish national championships last year. Well, they didn't all fall flat on their face, but most of them DNFed, and those who finished did not run too fast. The race was re-run a little later.

[dukehjsteve]

At the 1963 California Relays in Modesto, Univ of Wahsingon sophmore, Phil Shinnick was denied knowing whether or not he bettered Igor Ter-Ovanesyan's broad jump World Record because the wind official was told to have his anemometer at the broad jump only when Ralph Boston was jumping. (It was known before the meet that Boston was going to make a concerted effort to regain the record he lost in 1962. He got it back in '64.)

Interestingly, in speaking to TF&N later in 1963 of his desire to set the record legally in the future, Shinnick is reported to have been unaware previously to his jump past Ter-Ovanesyan's record mark that an wind reading was necessary for a World Record to be ratified.

There was a long, long thread on this issue about 3-4 years ago, with one of the principal thread contributors none other than Shinnick himself. As memory recalls, USATF ( with reasoning unknown) retroactively approved his jump as an AR. At that point Phil started a concerted effort for retroactive IAF approval as well.

[Halfmiler2]

A few I've seen:

1. The first year of the Indy track (1983 Championships?), the markings on the brand new track for one flight of the 100 hurdles were wrong, maybe off by a meter. In the trial heats, the top hurdlers were able to adjust on the fly but one of the slower seeded athletes crashed badly.

2. One year at Madison Square Garden, probably for Millrose, and probably in the 1980's, they ran an extra lap to make the 100 yeard race an 1160 yard race.

3. One year at Penn in the College Men's 4x100, the second or third leg of one of the teams was put in a wrong lane. Teams were given the option of re-running the race and duplicate watches were given to the winners of both heats.

4. At a Regional Junior Olympic Cross Country meet, I once saw the leader and fifteen athletes following her go off course cutting the distance a quartermile or so.

[dukehjsteve]

[quote="Halfmiler2"]A few I've seen:

1. The first year of the Indy track (1983 Championships?), the markings on the brand new track for one flight of the 100 hurdles were wrong, maybe off by a meter. In the trial heats, the top hurdlers were able to adjust on the fly but one of the slower seeded athletes crashed badly.

Local history lesson... Track opened in 1982 with US-USSR dual.

[lonewolf]

I may have reported this before but still amusing. (if one was not directly involved) .A couple of years ago, to host the Big XII, the University of Oklahoma rebuilt the T&F facilities to, imo, one of the best colleges layouts in the country. Weather delays found them still lining and marking the track on the first morning of competition.
In the first event on the new track, Mens Decathlon 100m, every contestant broke the WR for 100m.. they waited 30 minutes and re-ran the event from the correct start and finish lines.

[dukehjsteve]

Who remembers the Englewood ( NJ) Invitational HS meet in 1958, when John Mostyn, prior PR of about 9.7 or 9.8, ran a 9.3 to tie the WR ?! It got ballyhooed for a few days until someone belatedly discoverd that the race was run at 95 yards rather than 100.

[bluequiet]

NCAA Division III Indoor 2003 Championships. The Mens Shotput prelims and finals were almost done when Chris Basich from Mount Union College puts the shot over 60 feet, which was a new Division III record. Because it was a record, they had to then measure the shot put again and it was found to have been too light. The shot put Chris was using was the house shot put that Wisconsin-Whitewater provided because during the weigh ins before the compeition the shotputs he brought was found to be too light, even though we measured them ourselves before we made the trip.

Apparently no one bothered to weigh the house shots. The whole competition had to be redone because Chris wasn't the only one using that house shotput. The NCAA obviously tried to keep this under wraps because when Chris spoke up about it he recieved letters or something about how he shouldn't be speaking about it or something of that nature. It was quite a debacle. He ended up taking 3rd place in the redo competition though.

[tandfman]

Who remembers the Englewood ( NJ) Invitational HS meet in 1958, when John Mostyn, prior PR of about 9.7 or 9.8, ran a 9.3 to tie the WR ?! It got ballyhooed for a few days until someone belatedly discoverd that the race was run at 95 yards rather than 100.

We know you remember.

http://mb.trackandfieldnews.com/discuss ... 8&start=40

[dukehjsteve]

Who remembers the Englewood ( NJ) Invitational HS meet in 1958, when John Mostyn, prior PR of about 9.7 or 9.8, ran a 9.3 to tie the WR ?! It got ballyhooed for a few days until someone belatedly discoverd that the race was run at 95 yards rather than 100.

We know you remember.

http://mb.trackandfieldnews.com/discuss ... 8&start=40

I can't remember what I did yesterday, moreless what I posted here 2 1/2 years ago !