Landover meet timer made up results, Canadian champ told
Jim Flanik
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Karla Del Grande, the W55 sprint champion at Landover robbed of a legit time in her 400, has posted a comment on this blog that cries out for an official USATF response. Karla wrote: “Here’s the email that I received in response to my query as to how my time was decided, since the photo showed the rest of the finishers but not me: ‘Karla, The operator did not know how to enter you in the system with no time so she just made up one. It is unfortunate that this happened, but the games committee in the future will take control of both Hytek and FAT timing so hopefully this does not happen again. Jim Flanik’ ” Jim Flanik, Karla’s contact, is a member of the oversight USATF Games Committee. He and others in charge of the meet need to come clean on any other “made up” marks at nationals — and explain how this debacle came to pass. Stonewalling won’t work this time, guys.
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They made up Karla’s time? At a national championship? I think it is more than “unfortunate”. This is just completely pathetic.
Pathetic is a mild term for what went on at Landover witht the timing. What other times were just “made up”?
It is not enough for USATF Masters Games Committee to take charge of the FAT and Hytek at future national masters meets – they should scratch the Landover LOC off the list for future National Masters Track meets.
It was a debacle. It was a betrayal of the trust we athletes place in those who run these meets that the timing and cameras will work and we will have a true record of the results. And it is going to take some time for those who were victimized to trust the USATF Masters Games Committee to get it right.
I would remind everyone that in 2011 the WMA meet will be in Sacramento. What assurance will the WMA SAC LOC have to give that this sort of farce does not happen there?
Making up times – good grief – “off with their heads”
There were plenty of other times that were made up. One of my teammates ran 5:03 and was credited with 4:57. Another one ran about 5:30 and was credited with 4:52. Complete insanity.
It isn’t only the timing at Landover that was suspect. In the shot put competition for the pentathlon, I watched one official place his foot on the measuring tape as it extended out from the placement stick each time a particular competitor in the competition was having his throw measured. This added an estimated six to eight inches to the measured distance. Compound that to the fact that the shots didn’t mark the cement floor so the official often was way off on where he would place the stick to mark the throw. So either the official did not know how to mark a throw or worse…he did know how but didn’t.
There was also a runner who miscounted his laps not once, but twice. In M45 3000m and 1mi, Richard White ran 14 laps and 7 laps in each event, and when I asked how did that happen, he just said he was confused. Well, that’s a problem, but the fact that the lap counters didn’t say anything either at the time. Very frustrating that proper DQs were not issued at the time.
As I’ve always said,”we just don’t compare to the European circuit when it comes to masters track”. And that, my masters family is truly a travesty.
I’m simply embarrassed by this incident,and feel terrible for the athletes. So glad I was not there just to be let down by something so trivial as taking accurate time. Will we ever get our act together?
Sal
I copied a PDF version of Landover results, dated April 13:
http://www.masterstrack.com/news2009/April13Landover.pdf
Just in case. . . .
Lap counting in the 3k was an issue indeed – as I noted in another comment – I lapped two competitors in the W 50-74 3k – one “finished” 6 sec behind me! – the other well over a minute behind me – which one actually ran 15 laps and which one ran 14 laps! Clear evidence that lap counting was not a priority.
There is nothing new about that lap counting in longer races is seldom a priority at national and international meets. But what is truly amazing is that the recording of results was such a screwed up mess. Shame on them.
I competed at Landover and was not ill-effected by the clock, but I did witness some bizarre things. Since fully-staffing a meet like this is obviously a problem (particularly for the lap-counters) what if athletes themselves pitched in? If your 3000 meter race is an hour away (or a half-hour past) then why not step up and count laps for another section? Is that legal? Would it help solve the problem? As far as I know, most of the functionaries are volunteers. They certainly are volunteers at meets below the national level. I appreciate what they do, but if they can’t be everywhere at once then why not let the athletes help out? Or are we too busy?
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