Not a DQ – a Relegation. If it was a DQ, the Chinese girls wouldn’t have got the silver.
Well ok, not a DQ, but an automatic loss that in the early rounds is essentially a DQ. It just seems a bit over the top, especially since both China & GB would still have won their respective races without the tiny advantage possibly gained. You get a restart for a fall after all. Its just as bad as the no tolerance on false starts in athletics. These events aren’t gymnastics, they’re not about perfect precision every time, they’re about who is fastest. I’m not saying it should be ignored or allowed, but the sanction could be less harsh.
anyone know the official rules for when you can restart?
Recognized accidents:
• Fall
• Puncture
• Equipment failure: breakage of a vital part of the bike. These are RECOGNIZED accidents.
Unrecognized accidents:
• Tightening defect: foot out of pedal, misaligned wheel or handlebars, loose saddle etc. These are UNRECOGNIZED.
Note: competitors are permitted one accident in each round of an event and may start a second time. After this they are relegated according to the level of the event.
jamie Staff was pretty clear that it was VP’s fault for passing JV, regardless of when JV moved over. Rough either way, they knew after the Worlds that rules would be strictly enforced, but as Staff suggested, if youre riding quicker than you ever have before then you may well miss a marker or misjudge a move. Really gutted for JV.
I missed the interview where Hinde admitted a tactical crash, but watching it live it looked like it was his error getting the bike twisted up off the start and in slow mo it clearly looked like a deliberate fall. A question of pushing the rules (like changing over on the limit of the zone) but stupid to admit it.
Who are the people carrying the medals on the cushions for the presentation ceremonies? They all look a bit ‘simple’
Thing is the badminton set a precedent that the sport rules can get over-ridden by the spirit of the Olympics thing. The badminton players weren’t DQ’d at the time under the rules of their sport.
Maybe it was some intricate plan by the Germans, pretend to agree to release Hindes early to GB but in fact he’s a saboteur and gets us DQ’d (although the German’s not making the finals probably wasn’t in their grand design) :p
yeah you can watch it again now http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/2012/live-video/p00w2zws (06 at the bottom) – looks like a crappy start rather than mechanical, though from the above rules that probably wouldn’t matter anyway (tightening defect)
so maybe a saveable fall, (maybe not!) but certainly not just a dive cos his start wasn’t as perfect as it could have been (which was what it sounded like in the interview!) doesn’t sound so much like a rules issue now, to me.
Thing is the badminton set a precedent that the sport rules can get over-ridden by the spirit of the Olympics thing. The badminton players weren’t DQ’d at the time under the rules of their sport.
I believe that actually at least two of the four pairs were DQ’ed at the time, but were then allowed to continue. It was also under the rules of their sport:
All four pairs were charged under BWF’s Players’ Code of Conduct – Sections 4.5 and 4.16 respectively – with “not using one’s best efforts to win a match” and “conducting oneself in a manner that is clearly abusive or detrimental to the sport”.
All the UCI rules seem to say is that each team gets one restart for an ‘accident’, including a fall. Do however agree that saying you threw yourself down when you could have recovered, sounds like slightly dodgy ground.
“I just crashed, I did it on purpose to get a restart, just to have the fastest ride.
“I did it. So it was all planned, really.”…
…French track team chief Isabelle Gautheron told AFP: “It’s pretty obvious from the video pictures that he crashed to get the restart.
“There is nothing in the rules to sanction such an action. But now that he’s come out and said it, I hope the authorities consider making a change to the rules.
“We’re still bitter to have lost the final.”
So, like the badminton players, just pushing the envelope of the rules to best advantage. Unfortunately for the badminton players, the officials managed to invoke a rule to DQ them, but it looks like Hindes was more clued up about what he could get away with.
Quite funny watching Hoy and Kenny in the post-race interview, not quite able to believe what he’s merrily telling Jill Douglas
Might be against the spirit of the rules but so is starting a track sprinter in the road race and pulling out after a couple of km so you can then have an extra rider to call upon if needed in the velodrome. Plus there is the whole doping situation with giving out a retrospective 2 year ban which allows your key rider to compete at the olympics!
Yes, you get relegated to last in the round where the incident occurs, so the Chinese were relegated to last of two in the final, but GB were relegated to last of heat, so missed qualification.
I couldn’t believe the falling off story made the news this morning. It was obvious that he was joking.
Next up they’ll be people arrested for saying they’re going to blow up an airport on twitter.
“We were saying if we have a bad start we need to crash to get a restart,” Hindes explained to Jill Douglas. “I just crashed, I did it on purpose to get a restart, just to have the fastest ride. I did it. So it was all planned, really.”
The only reason the language sounds slightly piss-takish is he’s German rather than it being someone like Wiggo deliberately winding up the interviewer for a laugh
French fans and officials have been left baffled by just how well our athletes are doing. And nowhere more so than in the Velodrome, with France’s track cycling team director Isabelle Gautheron suggesting that British stars such as Victoria Pendleton and Sir Chris Hoy are using ‘Magic Wheels’.