Road miles are running rampant, but I want a road 100-meter dash. Only fair.
Sprinters with long hair, and masters roadies who want to see age-group mile records should be happy with the latest USATF rules-change proposals. Check out
this 23-page PDF. What’s up with long hair? Well, technically you face DQ if your tresses touch the ground ahead of the starting line of a sprint/hurdle race. But according to a change proffered by
Raymond Pierre, “hair is not considered a body part.” Ray says: “We often witness an athlete rising to ‘set’ and extra-long hair suddenly dropping and touching the surface in front of the starting line. Hair is considered part of the body and can be a factor in other events such as the jumps. An official choosing ‘literal’ over ‘spirit’ will disqualify this athlete unjustly.” Under Item 75, submitted by
Steve Vaitones and Lloyd
Stephenson, “The Masters LDR Sports Committee recommends that the road mile be returned to the
list of record eligible distances. We are hosting the USA Masters One Mile Road Championships each year on record eligible courses. We have the data available to generate a list of record performances for all [masters] 5-year age divisions.” So buy new laces, Nolan.
2 Responses
Not much else of interest to masters trackos in the proposals. But I see an effort to let 11-year-olds vault. That’s fine. We let 95-year-olds vault, so why not?
Rules Committee chair John B writes:
FYI
There are a few items that were properly submitted by Masters TF that I have missed. They will be added to the package in the next few days.
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