2015 You Are The Referee Situations Presented by Jim Fox and John Daubenspeck Greater Youngstown Track Officials Association

Situation #1 The public address announcer has notified fans and teams the girls Team A has a 1 point lead over Team B and a 2 point lead over Team C going into the 4x400 relay (last event). During the race, runner A3 has a 70 meter lead over Runner B3 and runner C3. A3 suddenly vomits straight up into the air, into her own eyes, hair and forehead. She stumbles to her left off the track for 4 small strides. A3 gets back on the track takes 2 more strides and vomits again, staggering off the track for several more strides. (Three variations follow.)

Situation #1 Situation 1A After taking a breath or two, A3 goes back on the track with B3 and C3 now 2 meters behind. A3 completes a legal handoff, and Team A wins the relay. Coaches from Teams B and C protest, citing unfair advantage and lane violations.

Situation 1B After taking a breath or two, a teammate of A3 hands her a towel to wipe herself off, A3 goes back on the track and completes a legal handoff. Team A wins the relay. Coaches from Teams B and C protest, citing unfair advantage and lane violations.

Situation 1C After taking a deep breath, the coach of Team A pats A3 on the back, hands her a towel and encourages her to get back on the track. A3 completes a legal handoff, and Team A wins the relay. Coaches from Teams B and C protest, citing unfair advantage and lane violations.

4-6-5 Case book page Situation 1A – in the opinion of the referee, no advantage gained, no interference, therefore no DQ Situation 1B, 1C – DQ, in the opinion of the referee, providing the towel was an aid, therefore an unfair act since it was during the race

Situation #2 A long jumper from Team A lands in the pit, somersaulting forward after landing. He then leaves the pit by walking forward.

Situation # c No foul, since the somersault was not during the attempt before making contact with the sand

Situation #3 When results from the 200 m dash are imported to the scoring software from the photofinish image, an error occurs resulting in the misplacement and advancement of several competitors. This error is not noticed until qualifiers are posted and announced, and several coaches voice protests.

Situation # , page 10 Case book situation E, page 8 The referee, treating this as a clerical error, instructed the FAT evaluator and scorer to make the corrections Electronic malfunctions affecting placing and scoring are clerical errors

Situation #4 In the semifinals of the 4x100 m relay during the league championship meet of a 9 team league being held on an 8 lane track, there is a false start, resulting in the disqualification of 1 team. The referee is asked to decide if the semifinals are necessary or if the race can be run as a finals-only event.

Situation # f 3-2-4m After consulting the games committee, the referee decided to instruct the scorer to re- seed the race as finals only Responsibilities of the referee (3-4-6) - authority for ruling on infractions or irregularities not covered in the rules

Situation #5 Five athletes from Team A check in for the 4x200 m relay, saying they will wait until after the 100 m dash to designate which 4 will compete in the relay. The clerk asks the referee if the relay then counts as an event for all 5 athletes.

Situation # Referee ruled that all 5 are charged with an event Preventive officiating by the clerk could have prevented this situation

Situation #6 In the boys 4x200 m relay, runner A3 completes a legal handoff to A4 who takes 2 strides then drops the baton. The baton bounces straight up and into the hands of A3, who is slowing down in the exchange zone. A4 slows down and turns back, A3 catches the bounced baton and tosses it to A4 who then completes the race. The incident occurs within the exchange zone with no interference. The umpire is shielded from viewing the incident by other runners, and makes no call. The referee heard the baton strike the track, and turned to see A3 toss the baton to A4. (continued)

Situation 6A – no coaches protest Situation 6B – coach from Team B protests citing unfair advantage Situation 6C Coaches from Teams B and C protest asking for a re-run due to exchange violations

Situation # , page , page , page , page 14 Baton must be handed, not thrown However, without a report from an official or the violation being seen by the referee, no DQ can be made

Situation #7 In the girls regional 800 m run, A1 and B1 are running in 6 th and 7 th places respectively in the turn following the completion of lap 1. As the inside runner (A1) veers out to pass another runner, the outside runner (B1) veers in toward the curb. The runners collide and both fall. They resume the race after being passed by a number of other runners, finishing well back in the final standings. The coach of runner A1 filed an appeal, claiming interference.

Situation #7 Since the umpire on the scene as well as other officials who viewed the incident could not determine who was at fault, no disqualification was made. The appeal was denied, since the umpire who raised a yellow flag could not determine who was at fault in the collision 5-9-1

Situation 8 As runners in the boys 100 m dash finish, a finish judge notices that A1 is wearing a large earring. She reports this to the referee, along with the athletes name, school and jersey number.

No violation – prohibition against jewelry has been removed

Situation 9 A high jumper begins her approach to the bar 57 seconds after she is called up, clearing the bar just after 1 minute passes. A coach from an opposing team protests that it should be a miss since she did not complete the attempt in under the 1 minute time limit.

No violation – trial must be initiated within 1 minute, not necessarily completed d, page 55 Rule clarification for this year

Situation 10 A discus thrower continues to spin after releasing his discus, moving toward the back of the ring as he does so. After the discus lands, he continues his motion out of the back of the ring. The official calls the throw a foul since the thrower did not wait until he called “mark”.

No violation. Rule change – athletes may leave the back half of the circle after the implement lands, even though the official does not call “Mark”, nor must they be “under control” f, page g, page f (javelin), page 49

Under no circumstances is it appropriate to use still photos or videos provided by coaches, parents or other spectators to make officiating decisions. The following photos are being used for this clinic only to describe situations and generate discussion

Situation #11 The following pictures were taken during an exchange in the US vs the World men’s 4x400 race at the 2014 Penn Relays.

This PowerPoint will be available Saturday evening at: If you encounter situations that would be interesting to discuss at the clinic next year, please send a description of them to John Daubenspeck at