Proposals on masters rules, records strike out at USATF meeting
A month ago, I highlighted proposed rule changes being considered at the USATF annual meeting in Orlando. Today I checked the “scorecard,“ showing which efforts got approved, rejected, etc. Turns out our items were withdrawn or tabled, including Item 44, a bid to make it easier to set masters age-group records (by requiring as few as two in a race, and counting all ages in field events). I don’t know why. Gary Snyder’s effort (Item 47) to ensure full flights, by allowing people to advance in a round if someone who made that round scratches, was withdrawn. Graeme Shirley’s proposal (Item 45) to require USATF membership for all members of relay teams was tabled. Lemme know if I missed any major rules changes that affect us.
Here’s how proposals fared at annual meeting. Click to see items.
2 Responses
The rule change proposals re records were withdrawn because adopting them would mean US records could (likely would) not be accepted as world records because WMA has not made similar changes. That, evidently, is being worked on at the WMA level and once adopted there will be adopted here (assuming success at the WMA level). It made sense to do that.
While not major, there were three changes proposed by the masters throwing contingent that were adopted – changing specs for the .75kg discus to match what the manufacturers are actually producing (already adopted by WMA in Perth); eliminating the need for a cage for the ultraweights (98#, 200#, and 300#) – it was never the intent to require it and this was an editing issue; allowing the normal +/- 6mm tolerance for the thickness and width of the ultraweight square (also an editing issue); and allowing materials such as plastic and wood to be used for the ultraweight square (previously it was required to be metal). All of these were approved.
Gary Snyder writes:
Some required discussion and approval by the full committee and we simply ran out of time due the the numerous elections.
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