Gelana vs Cassidy

6 watchers
Apr 2013
1:48pm, 22 Apr 2013
6,368 posts
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RichHL
I was on the next drinks station at 20k. We were taken round the course on Saturday to see where each station was located and it's really narrow at 15k. You could do something with flag marshals or have separate race channels through the drinks stations where the wheelchair athletes and elite women use different sides of the road. It would be better perhaps to have the elite wheelchair athletes go off first but that might mean that they receive less telly time.
Apr 2013
2:02pm, 22 Apr 2013
3,082 posts
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Duchess
Less? It's not as though they get much anyway FFS. Their start, pasing the elite women, Tower Bridge and their finish. If theys started first then the BBC could avoid having to cut away from the "real" elites and cover more of the wheelchair athletes during the preamble when they're interviewing celcbrities and such fluff. Oh no, wait a minute.....
Apr 2013
2:08pm, 22 Apr 2013
11,024 posts
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Naomi P
I failed to recognise a single "celebrity" yesterday and I was within inches of the race route at 24 miles where they were reasonably well spread out.

Sorry, off topic.
Apr 2013
2:09pm, 22 Apr 2013
1,642 posts
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ChrisThePuma
In my opinion (and like other sports) its the person behind who is overtaking that has the responsibility to avoid the person in front who probably wont be fully aware of the person behind.
Apr 2013
2:16pm, 22 Apr 2013
954 posts
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monsenb1
I also have to agree with the rule that the person behind should be responsible. Why Cassidy and others were trying to overtake on the inside at a drinks station and not expect runners to be going for their drinks amazes me..it was a case of bad luck though that the elite women were being overtaken by the wheelchair athletes at that particular point of the course..
Apr 2013
2:17pm, 22 Apr 2013
11,025 posts
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Naomi P
I think that's true in general, but if the person coming from behind has nowhere else to go (wall on one side, other runners on the other side) and the person in front very suddenly cuts in front from the side, it's pretty hard to see what the person behind can do, if they have lengthy braking times. Metaphorically speaking.
Apr 2013
2:19pm, 22 Apr 2013
418 posts
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Carpathius
I didn't see the actual incident but from the video clips it seems that both were at fault - Cassidy for overtaking between the runners and the drinks station and Gelana for veering across sharply without looking. However, when you're racing (I guess because this is out of my experience) it is easy to focus on just pace-drink-racing line and become a bit oblivious and that applies to both and is probably perfectly normal at their level.

Having the wheelchair athletes go off first would not solve the problem entirely - the elite women would still overtake the slower ones and there would still be a risk - but it would certainly help avoid such problems as there would be fewer chairs and runners on the same part of the course and therefore more room.
Apr 2013
2:51pm, 22 Apr 2013
76 posts
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Ceratonia
On the parkrun thing, they do have a special category in the results (MWC, FWC) for wheelchair athletes and at least some course descriptions mention wheelchair access. The man who finished a long way before me at Valentines just went a few metres ahead of everyone at the start and simply shouted that he was coming through on the following lap - no problem for anyone. I think he was training for the vlm, too.

Seen plenty of non-elite runners veer suddenly, stop/change pace without warning and crash into each other at drinks stations. While both runners were at fault, I can't help but think that undertaking at a drinks station isn't generally the smartest thing to do.
Apr 2013
2:59pm, 22 Apr 2013
889 posts
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Nelly
Chris - don't other sports (for example Formula 1) also require the person in front to stick to the same line, not violently veer across the course?

monsenb - "Why Cassidy and others were trying to overtake on the inside at a drinks station..." If you watch the video on the BBC website http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/athletics/22238423, the lead group of wheelchair athletes passed the ladies 15 seconds before the incident on that side of the road. I would guess the leader of the second pack of wheelchair athletes decided it would be safer to pass the group of runners on the same side as they were passed 15 seconds before, it was just unfortunate that they didn't all pass before the drinks station (even if the leader of the second group of wheelchair athletes did).
Apr 2013
3:03pm, 22 Apr 2013
6,905 posts
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The Terminator is Premier League
I put the blame firmly at the door of Gelana and her sudden veering across. Not sure who it was offered Gelana her drink but she saw that the first few wheelchair athletes were coming through and eased off a little to let them through before moving across to get her drink, good etiquette and the least you would expect from an elite runner of experience. Didn't harm her position at all as the whole exercise took fractions of seconds.

About This Thread

Maintained by Longwayround [LWR]
So, Tiki Gelana has collided with Josh Cassidy. Would it not have been sensible to release the wheel...

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