Mystery deepens in M50 200 final
The video of the “lost” 200 at WMA worlds apparently is more than a rumor. According to the British track magazine Athletics Weekly, such a video was cited to move Britain’s Viv Oliver up from fourth to a tie for third (with American Robert Bowen) in the M50 200 won by Bill Collins of Texas.
On page 42 of its July 16 issue, Athletics Weekly reports:
Viv Bonner won her (W50) 200m from lane one in torrential rain and the event was stopped. Everyone was asked to leave the field for safety, as there was a period of thunder and lightning. Controversy surrounded the first race after the break, the M50 200. Soon after it got under way, the beam at the finish line was broken by an official. The timer was stopped without a recall and there was no photo-finish for the race.
The result was announced with Viv Oliver in fourth place. The British team manager protested with video evidence clearly showing Viv in third position. The result was adjusted and both third and fourth (place) athletes received bronze medals.
This account differs from the FlashResults story of how the timing was lost for the race. I’ll see if I can dig up more details on this incident. Also hoping National Masters News resolves the dispute in its upcoming coverage of the Carolina meet.
One Response
I have addressed this off line with a few people as well. If there
is a tape of the entire race in existence, a time can be derived
from the cheap video timing system I explain on my site at
http://www.trackinfo.org/videotiming.html
While not precise to .01, given the flash of the gun, continuous
running of the tape and the showing of the finishers crossing the
finish line, it is accurate to meet IAAF automatic standards. If
such a tape is available to show an official “breaking the beam” it
should also be able to help retrieve the data.
By the way, it is a misnomer that “breaking the beam” will stop
the clock. In the old days of AccuTrak, there was a light beam
across the track that would cause the Polaroid film to move and
be exposed in the camera, when the film ran out, you ran out of a
picture and subsequent results (and with the camera set to fast
for a sprint race, a slow moving official could blow a lot of film
quite easily). Today’s FinishLynx (used in Puerto Rico) is entirely
an electro-photographic process. It can record continuously for
minutes if necessary (though it is a slight hassle to then edit and
does depend on the resources available on that specific
computer), but breaking the beam alone should not affect its
function. Most operators manually trigger the camera to record
whenever they see someone crossing the finish line (and delete
the inappropriate runners from the picture or results after the fact
in the case of lapped runners). In a 200 that also is not an
issue. In order for a working system to fail to get a result, the
operator must have failed to trigger the camera, the start failed to
actuate (which could be recalled) or the camera could have been
blocked continuously. Major meets even go a step further, taking
two pictures from (if done correctly which means on opposite
sides of the track) two different angles, so it is impossible for
one idiot standing on the finish line to block both cameras. So
the system is most vulnerable by power failure (have you heard
of uninterruptable power supplies?) and computer crashes
those damn PC’s). I would guess lightning could make a
computer crash or at least cause part of this multi-component
system go haywire, but one idiot official breaking the beam is a
poor excuse.
All this information does not mean it is O.K. to walk back across
the finish line. While a good operator should be able to
conjecture an accurate time, it is obviously best to have the
cleanest image possible and your body does not help. But
unlike the days of AccuTrak, that we had through most of our
running careers, it is a lot harder for you to screw up the
automatic timing system.
Andrew Hecker
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