Greetings, all Before our memories of the 14th World Veterans Athletic Championships grow misty, we ought to have a clear-eyed review of what took place in the area of disqualifications. Brisbane had a ton of them -- at least 65 by my count -- most notably in the relays. This comes from a review of results posted on the Web site at http://www.worldvac2001.com.au/tc_results.htm -- a site, BTW, that STILL is incomplete more than two weeks after the July 4-14 event. (As far as the site is concerned, the M85 100 and 200 never took place, even though Bert Morrow of California recounts his disappointing fourth-place finish in both and the races had many witnesses.) In fact, National Masters News -- the official world publication for masters track -- apparently has gone to press with its WAVA Brisbane (now WMA) issue without results from more than a few events. DQs are part of the game, especially in the race walks. Considering the hundreds entered in the many age groups, male and female, the 20 walk DQs at Brisbane seems plausible. Other events had their share of DQs, but they also seemed mainly minimal in terms of overall numbers. (The steeplechase accounted for three DQs, the hurdles -- short and long -- had six.) (Side rant: Although Brisbane organizers claim to have had 6,000-plus participants, that figure is an utter fabrication -- based on a tourist arm's estimation of visitors to the area for the meet, which includes nonathlete friends and family. The real number of competitors -- and not just "registered competitors" but ones who actually showed up months after the entry deadline -- was most likely under 5,000, according to highly placed and knowledgeable sources.) But something seems very wrong about the 400-meter dash and the relays. Although I counted ZERO disqualifications in the 100s and 200s (a jaw-dropping fact in itself ), the 400s saw 13 athletes DQ'd -- all but two of them male. In the M70 prelims Heat 2, the defending world champ from 1999 Gateshead -- Canada's Earl Fee -- was tossed. A witness to the Fee DQ says he was flagged for running on the line, but no supporting evidence was produced and appeals (throughout the meet) were pretty much summarily rejected (after individuals and teams posted $100 or $200 appeal fees). In the same 400 age group (Heat 1) fellow Canadian Leslie Robson also was ejected. Robson was a finalist at the 1999 world vets meet. But what really stands out are the relay DQs -- eight in the 4x1 and nine in the 4x4. By contrast, the 1999 Gateshead WAVA world meet had just five relay DQs (including one of a German 4x4 team that seemed bogus to many observers). Brisbane's relay DQs may have been exemplified by the experience of the M60 4x1 team from the United States, which crossed the finish line in second. As anchorman Harold Tolson tells me, his team was immediately red-flagged when he started his sprint. He took the baton properly in the international exchange zone, he tells me, but had been standing on the wrong side of the start line when he began his acceleration. An official apparently was keen to nail offenders of a rule that few sprinters were aware of. What really sticks in Tolson's craw is the fact that at ANY time in the moments leading to the sanction, the official could have called out: "Lane 8, move forward a step (or whatever)." This is a common courtesy by professional officials at most meets. How often have you seen a sprint starter quietly remind: "Lane 3, please move your fingers behind the line"? The United States appears not to have been singled out. Just three USA relay teams were DQ'd (including a likely gold medal quartet in the M40 4x4 that featured 49.18 man Sal Allah, the M40 champion in the 400). And Aussies weren't immune either. One Aussie relay team (M50 4x1) was DQ'd. A total of 17 Aussies were DQ'd in the meet overall. And not even the mucky-mucks were respected. The anchorman listed for South Africa's DQ'd M65 4x1 squad was none other than Monty Hacker, WMA's general secretary (a member of the Executive Council)! As athletes return home from Down Under and reports filter out about the meet, we may hear other horror stories. But this one deserves attention, for starters. Contrary to the oft-stated goal of the Brisbane Organizing Committee that this would be an "athlete-friendly" meet, it seems to have been more designed to tap tourist dollars. I was told, for example, that the local newspaper, The Courier-Mail, refused to cover the meet in Sports or print results because Brisbane WAVA was a "tourist event" and not an "athletic event." WMA had spent thousands of dollars and many hours sending inspectors to Brisbane to check on preparations. But in two key areas -- results dissemination and officials' training -- the LOC shows it perhaps was in over its head. How can we learn from this? Here are the listed DQs from WMA Brisbane: M50 -4X100 METRE RELAY- 53.61 - AUS (Cousins,Van Stappen,POLGLASE,Van Bavel) DQ M60 -4X100 METRE RELAY- USA (STEWART,OWERS,Edens,TOLSON) DQ M65 -4X100 METRE RELAY- - RSA (Avidan,Cross,BENNING,Hacker) DQ M70 -4X100 METRE RELAY- - GBR (FIELD,KALIRAI,HOWARTH,CROOKE) DQ M75 -4X100 METRE RELAY- - JPN (Kai,OSONE,Kawai,Yamazaki) DQ W50 -4X100 METRE RELAY- - CHI (ORMENO MATURANA,Perez,Rojo B,PEREZ RIQUELME) DQ W55 -4X100 METRE RELAY- CAN (Rosenitsch,Provost,Christensen,RADCLIFFE) DQ NOR (BLAKSTAD,Myklestad,CARLSEN,Nyland) DQ M40 -4X400 METRE RELAY- USA (ALLAH,Barnwell,SMITH,Radiff) DQ M60 -4X400 METRE RELAY- JPN (Fujisaki,Tadakuma,Konoike,Kimura) DQ ITA (Bertolissi,Gottardo,Marconi,Tamaro) DQ SWE (Hulden,Andersson,Holmgren,Wiberg) DQ M65 -4X400 METRE RELAY- NZL (COWLEY,WOOD,Allen,Roberts) DQ GBR (BARON,BURTON,FEAST,BOWMAN) DQ M70 -4X400 METRE RELAY- USA (ROBINSON,DAPRANO,ESCOBOSA,BROWN) DQ JPN (Inoue,SHIOMITSU,TASAKI,TANAKA) DQ W45 -4X400 METRE RELAY- CAN (LORD,FINDLEY,McMillan,de St Croix) DQ W50 -4X400 METRE RELAY- GER (Zorner,Schieferdecke,Lang,Meier) DQ M45 -3k METRE STEEPLE 91CM- - Geoff Holden 47 AUS DQ M70 -2k METRE STEEPLE 76CM- - Carlos Hernandez 70 MEX DQ M75 -2k METRE STEEPLE 76CM- - Stojan "s Stankovic 78 AUS DQ MEN'S -85 400 METRE- - Eddie Gamble 86 AUS DQ WOMEN'S -60 400 METRE PRELIMS- - Christa Zah 62 GER DQ WOMEN'S -65 400 METRE PRELIMS- - Josefina Schulz 67 VEN DQ MEN'S -55 400 METRE SEMIS- - Samuel Hall 56 USA DQ MEN'S -60 400 METRE SEMIS- - Zildo Bueno 61 BRA DQ - Maxwell Hamlyn 60 GBR DQ - Alan Carter 64 GBR DQ - John Cooper 62 AUS DQ MEN'S -70 400 METRE SEMIS- - Manfred Konopka 70 GER DNF - Heinz Krenzer 74 GER DNF - Leslie Robson 74 CAN DQ - Earl Fee 72 CAN DQ MEN'S -75 400 METRE PRELIMS- - Sergio Palma 75 ITA DQ MEN'S -80 80 METRE HURD 8X69CM70- - Kevin Hopkins 83 AUS DQ M50 -200 METRE PRELIMS- - Jaromir Aust 52 CZE DQ W60 -300 METRE HURDLES 7X69CM0 Sylvie Ah-Kang 62 MRI DQ Nanette Cross 60 GBR DQ M40 -800 METRE PRELIMS- Darren Solomon 40 AUS DQ Michael Warburton 42 AUS DQ Mark Carver 41 USA DQ M45 -800 METRE PRELIMS- Richard Hallford 45 AUS DQ Graham Gibbs 46 AUS DQ W40 -5k METRE- Christine Alderton 40 NZL DQ M45 -400 METRE HURDLES 10X91CM PRELIMS- Kun Sung Lin 46 TPE DQ M55 -400 METRE HURDLES 10X84CM PRELIMS- Klaus-Eggert Bahr 57 GER DQ W40 -400 METRE HURDLES 10X76CM PRELIMS- Sistla Srilakshmi 43 IND DQ W35 -5k METRE WALK- - Elizabeth Paolini 38 AUS DQ W40 -5k METRE WALK- - Debra Benton 43 USA DQ W45 -5k METRE WALK- - Judy Moller 47 AUS DQ - Nanci Sweazey 45 CAN DQ W50 -5k METRE WALK- - Dorothy Davidson 53 AUS DQ - Tut Kusumastuty Hai 51 INA DQ W60 -5k METRE WALK- - Waltraud Seiler 60 GER DQ - Roberta Hatfield 60 ??? DQ W65 -5k METRE WALK- - Helvi Sorri 66 FIN DQ - Dolor G. de Cabrera 65 MEX DQ M40 -5k METRE WALK- - Patrick Murphy 40 IRL DQ - Lachlan Wilkinson 41 AUS DQ M45 -5k METRE WALK-- Robert Coleman 49 AUS DQ - Martin Coxall 49 AUS DQ M50 -5k METRE WALK- - Luigi Giannuzzi 52 ITA DQ M55 -5k METRE WALK- - Rich Friedlander 57 USA DQ M65 -5k METRE WALK- - Salva Perez Perales 68 MEX DQ - Lucas Kakris 68 AUS DQ M75 -5k METRE WALK-- Masakichi Osone 77 JPN DQ - Jose Nieto 77 COL DQ Ken Stone http://www.masterstrack.com
