In a discussion with some others…
I thought I heard years ago that if you craw across the finish line you will be DQd.
The rules say you can run, walk, crawl the course, but I thought the finish line was different for the reason of impeding people racing to the finish for kona slots.
I was literally just reading the ITU rules, and they explicitly claim state you cannot crawl during the run, only run or walk.
Maybe WTC is different though.
Edit: “claim” must be “state”.
Maybe WTC is different though.
They are.
And that’s what’s so messed up about this sport. If I pick up soccer, I can be sure that wherever I go, everybody agrees on the rules. Here it depends on who sanctions a given race. It’s broken.
what about roll, like Blazeman
.
Maybe that is where I heard it from.
But the athlete guide says “RUN COURSE RULES”… you can crawl… at least the course. Finish?
In a discussion with some others…
**I thought I heard years ago that if you craw across the finish line you will be DQd. **
The rules say you can run, walk, crawl the course, but I thought the finish line was different for the reason of impeding people racing to the finish for kona slots.
I never heard that and it is simply untrue. From the 2018 Ironman competition rules:
Article VI. RUN CONDUCT Section 6.01 GENERAL (a) Athletes may run, walk, or crawl;
There is no exception for the finish line else people would have been DQ’d left and right year after year for doing the Blazeman roll. Some people have nearly taken out fellow finishers when they unexpectedly dropped to the ground to roll across.
The only rules on Finish Line Conduct are about the prohibition against family members or other spectators finishing with you.
The rules to run walk or crawl is true for Ironman events, generally not for other races:
1.The finish line is part of the ironman course.
2. People literally roll across the line at every ironman to commemorate and support Jon Blais/ALS, haven’t heard any issues with that.
3. In todays modern racing, if you’re crawling (and not just for the sake of crawling) across the line I doubt there’s a lot of people behind you looking to purposely KQ; the rule is more a nostalgic quality of Julie Moss’s 1982 finish that was built into the ironman credo for finishing the race.
I’ve completed enough of these… I’ll put on a good show and crawl the whole length of the finisher chute.
Not at all unusual for the same sport to have different rules dependent upon the level of competition. High School rules in many sports differ from college rules which differ from international rules which differ from professional league rules. Additionally, there is no way in hell everyone agrees on the rules in sports. Have you watched the NFL recently? Men’s college basketball?
Not at all unusual for the same sport to have different rules dependent upon the level of competition. High School rules in many sports differ from college rules which differ from international rules which differ from professional league rules.
The ITU has rules for youth and U23 as well. But they’re still ITU rules.
Additionally, there is no way in hell everyone agrees on the rules in sports. Have you watched the NFL recently? Men’s college basketball?
I haven’t seen either in a long time (cut the cord), but I hear what you’re saying. But at least there the different talking heads will do their respective exegesis-es from the same bible rule book.
Look, you have to admit it’s pretty strange for a commercial entity to come up with their own rules for their competitions while internationally agreed rules exist. I understand, history, scale of events, I get it all. I’m just so confused why there’s seemingly absolutely no move towards unification of those rule books.
Not at all unusual for the same sport to have different rules dependent upon the level of competition…
But WTC and ITU are not different levels as such. ITU is international sanctioning body and WTC is a commercial entity sanctioning it’s own branded events. At least I think that’s how it works. Feel free to correct me if I have it wrong.
They’re on completely different levels. ITU is the recognized IF by the IOC. ITU is to govern the sport of triathlon at the global level. WTC is simply a commercial entity just like NASCAR and Indy car racing. WTC can do what it pleases as it sits outside the governing body’s jurisdiction (if they’re races are sanctioned by the NGB they can, and do, receive permission to modify some rules). Part of this, at least in triathlon, has to do with the detente that exists between ITU & WTC. The NBA has a 24 second shot clock and uses three officials. High School basketball, in most states, do not use a shot clock. The NBA allows players to hand check, and even hip check, when on defense. At the high school level that’ll get the ref to call a foul.
Sports are moving towards unified rule books. Swimming and volleyball are two that come to mind. However, FINA is threatening to sanction swimmers if they compete in an upcoming meet in Italy because FINA says the event meets the criteria of FINA involvement. The event organizers disagree.
Look, you have to admit it’s pretty strange for a commercial entity to come up with their own rules for their competitions while internationally agreed rules exist. I understand, history, scale of events, I get it all. I’m just so confused why there’s seemingly absolutely no move towards unification of those rule books.
Existence evidence exists to the contrary. Compare FIBA rules to NBA rules. There are a significant number of differences. The NBA is a commercial entity that has decided to set its own rules compared to the international organization. Same thing with the NHL (although the differences there have narrowed).
A commercial entity may set its own rules to serve its markets better than the international sanctioning bodies (who have different motivations and goals) might.
Not saying it’s right or wrong, but there is a significant amount of this going on.
Not at all unusual for the same sport to have different rules dependent upon the level of competition…
But WTC and ITU are not different levels as such. ITU is international sanctioning body and WTC is a commercial entity sanctioning it’s own branded events. At least I think that’s how it works. Feel free to correct me if I have it wrong.
In Major League Baseball, the National League and American League have different rules regarding designated hitters…
I’ve completed enough of these… I’ll put on a good show and crawl the whole length of the finisher chute.
Check this guy out from stevej’s finisher video at kona (swipe right to third image/video).
Yes, ITU is the recognized international governing body for triathlon. Any race or race company (WTC being the biggest example) can technically deviate from these rules and enforce or not enforce as they deem fit, however, if they want to be sanctioned, they would need to discuss any exemptions with the the assigned Technical Delegate. And yes, the ITU does have different rules for Elite/U23, junior, AG, Para…
This is supposed to be getting simplified, with the MOU between WTC (Ironman) and the ITU for one harmonized set of rules for LD Tri, so theoretically when the new ITU Rulebook comes out (Usually late Nov/early Dec timeframe), it might be the one rule book to rule them all… Except… that not all national or provincial/state governing bodies enforce the rules the same (USAT’s rulebook differs widely from the ITU rulebook, however Triathlon Canada largely aligns with the ITU, with minor differences at a provincial level…)…
As for the question about crawling… Based on the rules as they stand today, WTC Leval, ITU illegal. As mentioned, in the ITU rules, you cannot crawl at any point along the run course, it could be grounds for DQ, more likely for you being medically removed from the course). I suspect the WTC has left it as allowed for nostalgic reasons (think the legendary Ironcrawl finish)…
In terms of the Blazeman roll, the rule that comes into play here is less the crawl rule and more the impeding the progress of another athlete rule… I’d struggle to DQ someone for the Blazeman roll, as long as they weren’t interfering with another athlete’s finish… if it was interfering with another athlete, then it’d be a no brainer (if you really want to roll, let the other athlete pass and finish, and then roll…)… I personally am more a run through the line type person when I race…
I think you have to look at the rules issue through a historical lens that starts with the legal battle between ITU and WTC for who owned the World Championship for the iron distance. News flash, ITU lost that one. WTC is the legal owner of the one and only Ironman world championship and established rules as it saw fit. Later ITU through USAT tried to bring them in line on rules such as serving penalties during the race vs USAT after the fact, and many other variances… Go back to 2004-2005 or so and WTC threatened to drop USAT sanctioning if they did not allow for the rules dispensations. WTC was a much bigger dog and if they would have pulled the requirement for USAT membership to do an IM, then USAT would have lost a major chunk of their revenue. In the end, USAT blinked and WTC carried on with their own different rules (like wetsuit legal water temps). So WTC kicked both ITU and USAT in the nuts and after that experience they are NOT going to try to force WTC to change. But subsequently they have started playing nice and there is movement in the direction of a more common rule structure as the new sternum zip-up rule shows. The attached article states that they signed a MOU in Feb 2017 to work towards standardized rules. History shows that ITU cannot force WTC to change against their will, but now that the past tensions are behind them, I think we will continue to see progress towards a common rule set over the years.
I’d bet there’s a little bit of context needed here too. For example, are you crawling to show off or to celebrate something? Probably okay, assuming that you’re not interfering with someone else’s race. Are you crawling due to a medical reason, meaning that your body lacks the physical means of standing upright? That’d likely result in a medical DQ, and in theory, they should have pulled you off the course for your own good. At least, this is how I interpret things.
Maybe WTC is different though.
They are.
And that’s what’s so messed up about this sport. If I pick up soccer, I can be sure that wherever I go, everybody agrees on the rules. Here it depends on who sanctions a given race. It’s broken.
Not you played Collage soccer in the states!