Re: t-and-f: Tufts 10K / USA WOmen's 10K Results
Tufts 10K finish - some specifics More than once I've seen how stories are written on how the chip decided the event's placing. Explaining how chips/officials work in tandem makes for either a story that can't be boiled down to 2 sentences, or is too confusing, so writers stick with the chip. At Tufts 10K: - Granite State Race Systems is the timing company. At all of their events, they rely on finish line officials / judges to determine placings and they hand time the top x finishers as well. There have been several cases in the past (Beach to Beacon 10K and Downtown 5K) where the order produced by the chip has been reversed by the judges, and times entered from hand times. - At Tufts, certified officials from Mass. TF Officials were on the line making calls on order. There were no questions among the officials on 1-2 (or 3-4 where the gap between bodies was closer than the full second in the results, which are rounded up to full seconds) - Four individuals timed the winner, and two officials with printer stop watches recorded at least the top 100. One or two others with TimeMachines recorded the tops and then did select timing. Runyan took the final left turn and ran a straight line - pretty much following the lead vehicle's direction. The chute with the finish tape was on center/right of the road, which requires a slight adjustment to run the hypotnuse after coming around the turn . Runyan ran the shortest route. The official who tried to move her over said later that she was probably just running the shortest route - and didn't realize that she likely didn't see him. (Runyan also almost ran into the back of a police motorcycle that had pulled over to the side of the road around 4 1/2 miles) And as for the TN in the state column; that was on the results sheet. Maybe the home of the agent that entered her, as that happend with other athletes. Steve Vaitones (Race Referee) Date: Mon, 14 Oct 2002 16:50:09 -0700 From: Ed and Dana Parrot [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: t-and-f: Tufts 10K / USA WOmen's 10K To: \Athletics\ [EMAIL PROTECTED] X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2720.3000 Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply-To: Ed and Dana Parrot [EMAIL PROTECTED] This from the AP wire: The finish was both dramatic and confusing when Wanjiku broke the winner's ribbon. Runyan, who has a degenerative eye condition known as Stargardt's Disease that has left her legally blind, was unable to see race officials waving her over to the winner's ribbon. But the entire width of the street counted as the finish line and the chip in Runyan's shoe marked her time correctly. Let's hope they didn't use the Chip as the determining factor - it is the torso, not the shoe. I don't know if this wording came from the race or just from a reporter, but it is not a good thing at all to be implying that the chip in the shoe was able to tell them apart. I imagine they had judges picking first place - if they didn't then they were delinquent. I have dealt with this exact issue in the past few weeks with a race in California, and if Tufts used the chip to determine first place (as opposed to time) and a large sum of money, they would be ripe for an appeal. It would nasty, too, if there is no evidence other than the chip. My best interpretation of USATF rules and the related RRTC guidelines for using the chip is that a race is not following USATF rules if it doesn't have some sort of backup system for identifying place based on torso. - Ed Parrot Steve Vaitones Managing Director USA Track Field - New England Association P.O.Box 1905 Brookline MA 02446-0016 Phone: 617 566 7600 Fax: 617 734 6322 [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.usatfne.org
t-and-f: Tufts 10K / USA WOmen's 10K
Marla Runyan,frontrunning from the start, stretched the lead pack out between 3 and 4 miles and then held on for a win at the Tufts 10K for Women / USA National 10K Championship. After the hairpin turn just before 4 miles and onto the Mass. Ave Bridge back from Cambridge to Boston, only Teresa Wanjiku stayed with Runyan. Putting a small gap in the final mile, Runyan just held on and just beat a strong finish by the Kenyan in the final 300m. Amy Rudolph got the nod in a close finish for third - and the last open money; overall top 3 and then top 10 US took home checks Times only got faster through the race - splits of 5:18 / 10:22 / 16:05 (5K) / 20:42 (approx) / 25:38 (3, 4 not clearly visible from the lead truck which as to stop at points due to the course configuration) The fastest finish in the race since Elana Meyer's 31:39 in 1994 (#6 in the 26 year history of the race), wind gusted strongly enough to blow over the finish banner bridge set up - fortunately before finishers were near. The longest stretches of the course had mostly cross winds; only the bridge sections were head/tail winds. Over 6200 entrants, largest in recent years. Also deeper than recent years. Here the top finishers; also check the fax machine for top 50 page. Overall, I think you pull out the US for the page. Check www.conventures.com, but they'll be up on www.coolrunning.com before that Steve 1.Marla Runyan TN 31:46 $3000 + $6000 US 2.Teresa WanjikuKEN 31:46 $1650 3.Amy Rudolph RI 32:04 $1400 + 3000 US 4.Tatiana Khmeleva RUS 32:05 the doughnut - O 5.Eyerusalem Kuma ETH 32:13 6.Colleen DeReuck CO 31:28 $2000 US 7.Teyeba ErkessoETH 32:45 9.Elva DryerUSA 32:58 $1800 US 10.Katie McGregor MI 33:06 $1500 US 11.Blake RussellMA 33:07 $1100 US 12.Libbie Hickman CO 33:10 $825 US 13.Kristin Chisum MA 33:15 $675 US 14.Shayne Culpepper CO 33:22 $575 US 15.Jenny Crain OR 33:30 $475 US 16.Olga Kovpotina RUS 33:46 17.Melanie Cleland CA 34:11 18.Dana Coons VA 34;13 19.Amy Yoder Begley IN 34:16 20.Janelle KrausRI 34:22 21.Sarah Toland CO 34:26 22.Melody Fairchild CO 34:36 23.Sarah Hann NH 34:43 24.Rachel SauderAL 35:12 25.Beth Old GA 35:14 26.Carmen Troncoso TX 35:24 $700 1st 40+ Steve Vaitones Managing Director USA Track Field - New England Association P.O.Box 1905 Brookline MA 02446-0016 Phone: 617 566 7600 Fax: 617 734 6322 [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.usatfne.org
Re: t-and-f: Tufts 10K / USA WOmen's 10K
This from the AP wire: The finish was both dramatic and confusing when Wanjiku broke the winner's ribbon. Runyan, who has a degenerative eye condition known as Stargardt's Disease that has left her legally blind, was unable to see race officials waving her over to the winner's ribbon. But the entire width of the street counted as the finish line and the chip in Runyan's shoe marked her time correctly. Let's hope they didn't use the Chip as the determining factor - it is the torso, not the shoe. I don't know if this wording came from the race or just from a reporter, but it is not a good thing at all to be implying that the chip in the shoe was able to tell them apart. I imagine they had judges picking first place - if they didn't then they were delinquent. I have dealt with this exact issue in the past few weeks with a race in California, and if Tufts used the chip to determine first place (as opposed to time) and a large sum of money, they would be ripe for an appeal. It would nasty, too, if there is no evidence other than the chip. My best interpretation of USATF rules and the related RRTC guidelines for using the chip is that a race is not following USATF rules if it doesn't have some sort of backup system for identifying place based on torso. - Ed Parrot
Re: t-and-f: Tufts 10K / USA WOmen's 10K
Message text written by Ed and Dana Parrot My best interpretation of USATF rules and the related RRTC guidelines for using the chip is that a race is not following USATF rules if it doesn't have some sort of backup system for identifying place based on torso. Actually, Ed, that's not quite right, at least as far as USATF rules are concerned. The chip time cannot be the official winning time. When chips are being used, the official time must taken by human timers (who are timing based on the torso), not by the chips. So it is not correct to characterize the hand timing as a back-up system. It is the primary system for determining the winning time. See USATF Rule 36.4(g). Bob H
Re: t-and-f: Tufts 10K / USA WOmen's 10K
Actually, Ed, that's not quite right, at least as far as USATF rules are concerned. The chip time cannot be the official winning time. When chips are being used, the official time must taken by human timers (who are timing based on the torso), not by the chips. So it is not correct to characterize the hand timing as a back-up system. It is the primary system for determining the winning time. See USATF Rule 36.4(g). Bob - You are of course correct about the winning time, but I was talking about place, which is not covered by Rule 36.4 or rule 37 to which it refers. In fact, is there anywhere in the rules where it allows the use of a transponder system for picking places? I can't recall it anywhere, which means that technically all places are supposed to be determined by finish judges as per rule 34 and rule 65-1, correct? So I guess I shouldn't have used the word backup for place determination, either, except that in practice the chip is used to determine both place and time at many races and for all runners except perhaps first place. Sooner or later I can't help wondering if the lack of a judge on a money place (say first woman over 40 or something like that) in a chip-timed race is going to really cause a problem. - Ed Parrot
