It only took a week

Us track and field has decided a runoff in the 100M will determine the third 100M slot.

Race Monday. 5:00PM and free at Hayward, if you are down there.

Hallelullia.

I think this is pretty cool... instead of treating this the way they have, they should have seen the marketing opportunity here... how cool is this 2-person race going to be?! Breaking in on live TV over most of the country (apparently not the West Coast though)... a 2-person race with everything on the line. I love it!

I don't see a live stream listed for this race on the NBC site although I imagine they will have it posted after the race is completed.

PilotNut wrote:I think this is pretty cool... instead of treating this the way they have, they should have seen the marketing opportunity here... how cool is this 2-person race going to be?! Breaking in on live TV over most of the country (apparently not the West Coast though)... a 2-person race with everything on the line. I love it!

Exactly. A great opportunity for USATF to create some excitement around the sport.

Not so fast...

DaTruRochin wrote:Not so fast...

Haha, the drama continues....

http://www.oregonlive.com/trackandfield/index.ssf/2012/07/us_olympic_trials_its_official.html#incart_river_default

Hahaha makes you wonder if swoosh dollars had something to do with it since Alyson Felix is one of their "names" in T&F....

Why doesn't she just argue for the coin flip instead of bailing completely? She get paid off? Weird.
I hope USATF comes up with a better way to handle this (extremely rare) problem in the future. Athletes aren't preparing for an extra heat/race in the trials, so asking them to run again could be detrimental to their recovery and training as the Olympics approach. Imagine if this happened in the 5k. Does anyone want to watch a 2 person distance race? Do the athletes really want to exert themselves again in such short notice? I'd like to see them base this off the fastest time posted by the athletes this year, or something to that effect.
(by the way, anyone watch the 200m men's final? Third and fourth place were separated by only 1/100 of a second. We almost had this problem again!)

I was really excited to watch the runoff. I am disappointed that it is not happening. Tarboh's quote seems a little interesting to me. Definitely does not show the "drive" that you would think an olympic caliber athlete would have.

It seems like she declined the race because (sigh...) she is going to end up suing the USOC. Her reasoning is as follows... if I race, that means I acknowledge it was indeed a true tie. But if I don't race, I will not have ceded that point to the USOC.

This definitely isn't over yet.

Leave her home.

up7587 wrote:Leave her home.

Amen. yuck.

Cut it out with the negative waves!

Stoney, you are starting to sound like Bob Ryan. And nobody likes Bob Ryan.

mattywizz wrote:I was really excited to watch the runoff. I am disappointed that it is not happening. Tarboh's quote seems a little interesting to me. Definitely does not show the "drive" that you would think an olympic caliber athlete would have.

Was this a major letdown?

I suppose, but I find solace that the only entity screwed more than Tarmoh by this whole affair was USA Track and Field.

And it, unlike Tarmoh, the USATF really earned said screwing.

This sorry charade could have been avoided from the outset if USATF had tie-breaking procedures in place.
Remember too that Tarmoh wouldn't have felt disillusioned to the point of concession—or as she put it, "robbed"—if race officials hadn't declared her the winner and sent her on a victory lap.

And for this dereliction of duty, what was USATF getting?

A prime-time spot on NBC to stage what would have been one of the most intriguing races in American track history.

All because of its own blatant mismanagement!

I can't help but smile a little at the thought of Tarmoh pulling the rug out from under these panjandrums.

It's a small bit of justice.

DoubleDipper wrote:

I can't help but smile a little at the thought of Tarmoh pulling the rug out from under these panjandrums.

It's a small bit of justice.

Here in the NorthWest we call them Hiyu Muckamucks.

mattywizz wrote:Stoney, you are starting to sound like Bob Ryan. And nobody likes Bob Ryan.

Oooooh... MattyWizz with the drive by. Ouch.

PurpleGeezer wrote:

DoubleDipper wrote:I can't help but smile a little at the thought of Tarmoh pulling the rug out from under these panjandrums.

Here in the NorthWest we call them Hiyu Muckamucks.

I first heard the word Panjandrum in England in the late '70's, but in that usage it was the name of a device the Brits were developing to blast their way through Nazi beach fortifications in WWII. (I believe it was a failure).

I later had "panjandrum" effectively used against me in a game of scrabble sometime in the '90's. I've been waiting since then to use it myself. Didn't want to come right out and call the USATF a bunch of pompous self-important asses/officials, so FINALLY I could just use the term panjandrums instead.

Yes, I fully agree, Hiyu Muckamucks is a much preferred, and understood, descriptive term.