Rule Change Proposal - Opinion

[Barto]

I think the fact that the top three positions may be determined by misses would be motivation enough for young athletes to not pick up unnecessary x's.

My reasoning on this proposal is simple. I have observed several instances during the last couple of seasons where as many as 10 athletes clear the same bar and are ranked in positions 4 through 13 based upon current tiebreaking criteria. I feel that the current system provides too much reward to the 4th placer and too much punishment to the 13th placer when they both jumped the same height. When reporting results I prefer we emphasize height jumped. To the casual observer the same height should equate to the same placing as much as possible. In the instance of the top 3 places it is not realistic to not break ties, but for the other positions I think it is not a problem.