Track meet called off due to lightning just before record

HS track meet in NJ stopped with one lap to go with a national record about to be set because of lightning. Almost-record-setter and his family are miffed that he didn't get a chance to finish. They blame race officials for stopping it. Of course, if their kid had been allowed to run on and had been hit by lightning 30 yards from the finish, they'd be suing everyone associated with high school sports in the state of New Jersey. Can't have it both ways, folks.

http://highschool.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1230222

 

Good for the meet officials to have the guts to stop the meet when they saw the lightning.

 

And the kid already owns the state record. He was just on pace to break his own record.

Idiot dad should have just said, "Thank you for making the safety of the kids such a high priority" and went on his way.

 

That's a great story, and the video is classic. I understand the family being upset, but hard to argue with the decision.

 

Smart move by the officials. We already hear of enough stories of Little League kids getting struck by lightning and killed.

It's a friggin high school track record. Who gives a shit?

 

Most states have a cut-and-dried rule. The first sign of lightning everything has to stop. And then everything has to be clear for 30 minutes before it can start again.


I didn't read this article, but read it somewhere else a day or so ago. The dad was complaining in that one about why they even started the race, which is another stupid comment from him.

 

AMEN!

 

Kid had as much chance of setting that record as he did of being struck by lightning.

 

Well-played.

 

Funny thing is, judging from the video, though they may have stopped the event and technically cleared the stadium, it appeared that most people were still milling about outside or under some kind of temporary awning.

That's not any safer.

 

Joe Rosa wasn't on pace for a national record. He was on pace to break his own NJ state record when the race was stopped.

I was announcing that night at the meet. The real issue is that he race never should have started. Once it started, it should have been suspended much earlier. We all saw lightning and heard thunder just before the race began and during the early laps.

The race was actually stopped with about 700 meters to go, not one lap. The leaders were running off the turn onto the backstretch after coming through 2400 meters when meet management made the call.

The Rosa twins and one other runner continued racing. Joe made it all the way to the starting line at 7:38, only to find the track blocked by officials. He had just run a 63-second lap.

For the record, Mount Holly is not "just a few miles from where the meet was taking place." It's about 50 miles.

Also, FWIW, the national record is 8:29.46, set last week by Lukas Verzbicas over two miles. Not German Fernandez's 8:34.23.

http://www.nj.com/hssports/blog/boystrackandfield/index.ssf/2011/06/more_on_thursdays_3200.html

 

True, but if anyone got hurt or killed, the race officials could claim they weren't liable because they stopped the race and told people to leave.