Sunday, May 19, 2013
Variety at the track
I am thinking that today's athletics match was fairly hurriedly put together.
It felt, for a while, somewhat chaotic - with nobody being very sure what needed to be done.
I was going to be chief timekeeper; we just about had enough people to make a good team of TKs.
But hang on.......track judges?
No sign of anybody.
In a league match it is impossible to operate without them.
Finishing positions and points cannot be sorted without track judges.
It was about this moment - with athletes waiting for the first race to begin, that good luck and that good old British spirit of everybody pulling together, took over.
The biggest stroke of luck was having Donna there.
She came along to go through the duties needed to be Clerk of the Course....which she will be doing next weekend.
Even better fortune was that in the last few days she had been reading up on the role of a chief track judge.
She took over and I joined her, leaving 3 to look after the timekeeping.
On the face of it track judging looks easy....decide on the finishing positions in each race.
This was not taxing today, with few athletes......but just try writing down the finishing numbers of 8 100 metre runners, in the correct order, who finish within just one second!
But these are not the only duties.
It is the track judges who are responsible for hurdles - right heights, right positions etc; also steeple chase barriers - not all the barriers are on the track for the first lap. Track judges must ensure that athletes keep to their lanes, don't impede others, hand over batons in the correct zones and so on.
All this was fresh in Donna's memory.
I assisted as much as possible and enjoyed being in the sun chatting to other athletics people who I don't know so well.
At one point I was even visited by one of the timekeepers!
Thai reports keep on coming.
It felt, for a while, somewhat chaotic - with nobody being very sure what needed to be done.
I was going to be chief timekeeper; we just about had enough people to make a good team of TKs.
But hang on.......track judges?
No sign of anybody.
In a league match it is impossible to operate without them.
Finishing positions and points cannot be sorted without track judges.
It was about this moment - with athletes waiting for the first race to begin, that good luck and that good old British spirit of everybody pulling together, took over.
The biggest stroke of luck was having Donna there.
She came along to go through the duties needed to be Clerk of the Course....which she will be doing next weekend.
Even better fortune was that in the last few days she had been reading up on the role of a chief track judge.
She took over and I joined her, leaving 3 to look after the timekeeping.
On the face of it track judging looks easy....decide on the finishing positions in each race.
This was not taxing today, with few athletes......but just try writing down the finishing numbers of 8 100 metre runners, in the correct order, who finish within just one second!
But these are not the only duties.
It is the track judges who are responsible for hurdles - right heights, right positions etc; also steeple chase barriers - not all the barriers are on the track for the first lap. Track judges must ensure that athletes keep to their lanes, don't impede others, hand over batons in the correct zones and so on.
All this was fresh in Donna's memory.
I assisted as much as possible and enjoyed being in the sun chatting to other athletics people who I don't know so well.
At one point I was even visited by one of the timekeepers!
Thai reports keep on coming.
