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We had an interesting thing happen today at AAUs...

The bar was set at 7' and 2 girls cleared it. The bar was raised 6", but the crossbar was put on the second peg instead of the lowest, making the bar 8'6". The coaches started hollering at the officials but it was loud and they couldn't hear.

The first girl jumped and made it. The second girl's coach got her attention and told her not to go until they fixed it. It took awhile (they almost called a time foul on the second girl until they realized their mistake!), but the officials finally figured out they had set it wrong. The other girls all jumped correctly at 7'6" and made it.

The officials decided to give that first girl credit for 8'6", passing her at 8'0 and 8'6. She jumped again at 9'0" and missed all three times.

What should they have done? It was certainly the nice thing to do to give her credit for 8'6", but something tells me that that is not what the rules say.

they should have made sure that the height was correct in the first place. 12 in. difference should have been clearly seen. but then again, eyes are always decieving. otherwise, it looked like they were being fair.

they should have made the girls jump again at the correct height.

Kind of the same thing happened to me at state in HS. The bar was raised to 15'9" and the right standard was accidently raised to 16' since after 15'6" it went to 3" increments instead of 6". The guy working the right standard wasn't paying attention. The first vaulter, and eventual state champ, cleared on his first. Then the officials noticed. But they decided that all remaining attempts would be at the uneven placement.

This was well before the Best Official in Texas began running things. Nothing like that would happen on his watch.

achtungpv wrote:Kind of the same thing happened to me at state in HS. The bar was raised to 15'9" and the right standard was accidently raised to 16' since after 15'6" it went to 3" increments instead of 6". The guy working the right standard wasn't paying attention. The first vaulter, and eventual state champ, cleared on his first. Then the officials noticed. But they decided that all remaining attempts would be at the uneven placement.

This was well before the Best Official in Texas began running things. Nothing like that would happen on his watch.

interesting. i guess that is all legal since the bar is supposed to be measured from its lowest point which there was probably 15-9. so in that case it might be ok to set the bar even and continue at 15-9

back to the origional question, i dont know how the officials could have not passed the vaulter to 9. of course in these situations an athlete doesnt usually clear the wrong height. probably the biggest meet th at something like this happened at was the Women's World CHampionships in 2001. there they just didnt count the attempts at the wrong height, but i believe they were all misses

You won't find anything in the rule books about what to do as this is not supposed to happen.

That being said, the what to do in that case is to call in the Referee(s), explain the situation and wait for a ruling. This kind of situation falls right into his written job description.

Here's how I think most of us would have handled it.
for the girl that cleared 8'-6'' but should have been jumping at 7'-6", reset the bar to 7'-6" for the other jumpers and pass her at 7'-6", and at 8'-0". Let her return at 9'-0" or whatever the next height would have been.
Looks like that was done.

For the case of the uneven bar (15'-9" on one side and 16'-0" on the other), reset the bar to 15'-9" on both sides for the remaining jumpers and let the mark stand for the jumper who did clear. No doubt in my mind that the bar was at least set at 15'-9" at the lowest point.
Looks like they partially did this. This might not stand up had this been some state record.

I'm not from Texas but just who might this best official be?

Here's another situation that happened. What should be done?
In this case the cantilever arms had pins set every three inches. The ranges that can be covered when the standard is at its lowest point will be from 8' to 10' in three inch increments.

OK, what happed was a jumper who passed all heights to 10'-6" was four or so in the order. The previous jumper disloged the bar so it had to be replaced. The volunteer help put the bar back up at 10'-3" and no one noticed. The new jumper clears on this first attempt of the competition but since the bar was moved along the pins, the bar raisers now notice they had placed it on the wrong peg for this jumper.

Coach argues he should be given credit for 10'-3" which is not one of the heights set by the games committee for this multi-school meet.
Now what? (besides calling for the referee).

Vaultref wrote:I'm not from Texas but just who might this best official be?

Brian Elmore. He is the standard by which all other officials are judged.

Vaultref wrote:You won't find anything in the rule books about what to do as this is not supposed to happen.

Perhaps there should be. Officials make mistakes all the time, whether or not the people who write the rule books want to admit it.

Perhaps there should be a casebook or approved ruling inserted in the manuals.

If you don't mind answering (you can sent it privately if you like), what kind of mistakes have you seen or heard about.

Brian Elmore. He is the standard by which all other officials are judged.

Amen....you will not find an official who cares more about the vault or loves the athletes more than Brian Elmore. Ask anyone who has jumped "under his watch" or has been coached by him. They will tell you the same.