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What rules exist regarding changing the direction of the approach run because of wind conditions? Before competition? During competition? What reasons, if any, are legitimate to justify it? If you know where in the rules this is covered, please share that information.

- master

As best I know the rules. The "games committee" determines which direction the event will to be run. It is my understanding that once the competition starts the direction can not be changed. That's it as best I know it.

Dan

drcurran wrote:As best I know the rules. The "games committee" determines which direction the event will to be run. It is my understanding that once the competition starts the direction can not be changed. That's it as best I know it.

Dan

i think that right

I know that i have seen girls jump one way, then for some reason they took an hour off and the wind shifted BADLY. All the guys complained and they turned it around for us. But it wasnt a conference or state meet, just a small invite. I thought it was quite nice to accomodate us. We are they reason they are having the dang meet, we deserve to vault with a tailwind .

i wish they would do that for us we had a really strong face wind and all of the vaulters requested that they switch the pads, which they could, and then they said if we didn't want them like this to quit, i was so pissed off, and everybody jumped awful

I asked this question a few years back and got two different answers from two different officials. The first said that once the competition starts, the pit can't be changed. The second official said that if noticeable wind change happens, such as a cold front, the pit can be changed once the bar goes to the next height. I guess it depends on the officials and how accomadating or concerned they are for vaulter safety. I have never seen this rule written anywhere.

Here is the reason I asked the question. At the State meet yesterday, the girls competition ran north to south. The wind picked up a little but wasn't significant although it was a head wind. The boys warmed up and the competition started. It went through the first two heights and two competitors were eliminated. They then turned the pit around, running from south to north. I commented to some friends that I didn't think that was legal, but I wasn't sure. I also commented that at this venue, the predominate wind direction is north to south and that it wouldn't surprise me for it to switch back to that direction. It took them a half hour or so to change the pit and within the following half hour, the wind did switch back. So the vaulters ended up jumping into a head wind after all. Fortunately it was only a few miles per hour so it shouldn't have bothered most vaulters.

One person in the stands said they changed it because it was unsafe the way it was. That didn't make sense to me since it was only a moderate wind, but it made me wonder if "safety" could be used as a legitimate reason for changing direction.

- master

NF rules are silent on this issue.
Should they have some words? They sure should just like the other two major rule codes in the US.

Someone has to propose a change but it is too late for this year.

NCAA says to suspend the competition but do not change the direction of the pit.
On the otherhand, our USATF rules say:
The Referee shall have the power to change the location of the competition in any field event after it has started only if extreme conditions warrant it.
Whenever it is feasible, such a change shall be made only after a round in
progress has been completed.
NOTE: The fact that the wind direction has changed is never a justification for reversing the direction of the runway or changing the direction of throwing after the event has started.

Here's my take for NF... I'd use a parts of both NCAA and USATF rules as my guide and first suspend the event for a while hopefully after a height has been completed (but it better be really strong winds). Then if it looks hopeless for continuing, I go with a direction switch if as stated these are extreme conditions.
My final take would be to cancel the event at that point as some venues do not have the ability to switch.

Last week end at D III National meet the PV was postponed because of wind. 40 mph tail wind! I'm sure some thought we should have vaulted, but the next day was the best day of the 3 day meet and we had very good competition. Men's, women's, and multi all on one day. Long day but great competition.

Dan

drcurran wrote:Last week end at D III National meet the PV was postponed because of wind. 40 mph tail wind! I'm sure some thought we should have vaulted, but the next day was the best day of the 3 day meet and we had very good competition. Men's, women's, and multi all on one day. Long day but great competition.

Dan

Problem with a big tail wind is the bar won't stay on the pegs! Then you get officials holding the bar on and it becomes almost a joke. They made the right move by delaying it a day.