This Sunday, Grant Fisher won the mile at New Balance Nationals, as expected. This isn’t really news worthy, except for the fact Grant Fisher did not win the race, and was wrongly given the victory. I know this is a pretty quick turnaround given that the race happened only a few hours ago, but ever since it was announced Grant Fisher would retain his title, I have been steaming. I assume all of you have seen the race, and if not, stop reading, and watch it. Fisher’s run was awesome, and what transpired was tragic, but the fact that he took six steps off the track cannot be ignored. Grant Fisher is not this year’s national champion in the mile, and I contend that his crowning as winner is as big of a crime as has occurred in high school track and field history.
Before I get into anymore of this argument, let me just say this isn’t one of those things where I hate Grant Fisher like Parker Stinson, causing me to write this for personal reasons. I actually really like Fisher. He is, without question, the best distance runner in high school currently, and I am very excited to see him go to Stanford; I believe him, Ostberg, Sam Wharton, a healthy Rosa, and Sean McGorty have a legitimate chance of beating the beast that is the Colorado Buffalo in cross country. On that note, Grant Fisher was the best runner in the field, and it wasn’t close. Fisher dominated names including Sam Ritz, Logan Wetzel, James Burke, and Jack Salisbury. That is no easy task. Moreover, Fisher ran the best race. That is without question. Grant Fisher was the fastest runner and he ran the fastest race of anyone in the mile today. Those facts cannot be used to ignore the fact that Grant Fisher broke the rules; he took six steps by my counting off the track, and at one point, stepped completely off the track and onto the infield. There has never been another race where an athlete has stepped on the infield and not gotten disqualified. I don’t know what possible justification the meet directors at the Armory could give to allow Fisher’s result to remain. Fisher, I’m sure, would readily admit he deserved to be DQed, as in his post-race interview, it was clear he expected for his result to be thrown out. It sucks what happened. If he didn’t clip the rail, I think he would’ve run 4:00.xx, an incredible time for a full mile inside. Regardless of how fast he ran and how much he would’ve (and did) win by, Grant Fisher did not run his race within the regulations set forth by no fault of anybody but himself. If any other athlete had done the same thing Fisher did, they would be disqualified without hesitation. As much as I like Grant Fisher and was impressed by his race today, the fact that the meet directors gave him the win is a sham and a travesty to New Balance, the Armory, and all of high school track and field.
Another reason I am so upset about what happened with Fisher is the number of DQs from this weekend. At the NCAA meet, Jesse Garn was DQed from the 800 prelims for a false start, and a female runner was DQed from the 3k for the same reason. Obviously, I was upset about these decisions (I don’t think that false starting in a distance event demands a disqualification), but the fact of the matter is the officials felt the athletes had broken the rules of racing, and therefore felt the only justifiable action was disqualification. I do not agree with their decisions, but I certainly understand them; the officials did what they thought was fair. At high school nationals, shortly prior to the start of the mile, the commentators on the live feed announced that Taylor McLaughlin was disqualified from the 400m final and his victory was voided. Replay showed that McLaughlin did cut in from lane six early, breaking the rules. The crown was given to Rai Benjamin, who finished second, .11 seconds behind McLaughlin. This decision was obvious, because it was clear that McLaughlin had cut in before he was permitted to by the rules to. Like Fisher, I do not think McLaughlin cutting into lane five two steps early won him the race. Yeah, .11 seconds is not a huge margin of victory, but it was enough to convince me that he was the fastest guy in the race. Obviously, Fisher stepping on the inside of the track did not win him the race, but like McLaughlin, it was violation of the bylaws. How one meet can have so much inconsistency is beyond me. I cannot even fathom a justification from the meet officials in their decision to DQ McLaughlin, but give Fisher a win when their situations are so analogous.
When I stated I did not have a personal stake in this matter, it was a bit of a lie. James Burke, the runner up in the race, is a New York native. This makes me a little bias against the decision because I take pride in NY guys running well, and a national crown for Burke would be incredible and would be the cherry on top of a truly amazing season for him. Despite this, I would argue for Fisher’s DQ regardless of the runner up. If Sam Ritz had finished second, I would still write this piece, despite PA being my “rival state,” given the fact I am the only non-PA contributor for this blog. Burke battled hard, and unlike Fisher, ran his race without breaking any rules (to my knowledge). Grant Fisher blatantly committed an error that would see any other athlete be DQed. For this reason, James Burke, and not Grant Fisher, is my 2015 high school national champion for the mile.
So, given how obvious Fisher’s rule violation was, why was he not DQed? I can only think of one answer: his status in the running community. Having Fisher win the race while setting a meet record is marketable; New Balance and the Armory can use Fisher and his win in the future because Fisher has name recognition. James Burke winning in 4:08 isn’t sexy. This is complete BS. If this was the reason Grant Fisher kept his title, and I hope it wasn’t, this year’s meet was one of the shallowest events to take place in all of high school sports ever. This meet is about the athletes, not about the sponsors or the revenue. James Burke deserved that title. and if he is being denied it for monetary purposes (and no other rationale comes to mind or has been offered), I am sorry, but that might be the biggest scandal in the history of high school indoor track and field.
I think he would've broken 4, between the fall itself and the momentum he lost. I agree with you 100%, but I can't get over how bad I felt for him. You're right, he should've been DQ'd, but I would've felt too bad for him to do it. I'm glad he got the title, because he DOES deserve it, its just a shame he had a to earn it with this controversy.
ReplyDeleteJust watched the video and what a shame. That guy was probably on his way to a 4:02 low, maybe better, and doing it all on his own. Clearly there was nobody catching him. He had it won easily, he could have coasted in, but he turned it on down the stretch for the huge performance which is incredibly admirable and typical of champions. But those decisions to keep pushing and going for a PR/history are part of the sport, and in this instance going full force to the line caused a mistake. It happens.
ReplyDeleteNo doubt he’s a class ahead of the field. No doubt he should have been the national champion. No doubt that stumble cost him some time and was in no way an advantage. And no doubt nobody else really wants to be crowned national champ on a disqualification of the top guy. All that said, he should be DQ’d. The rules are clear cut and he broke them, intention has nothing to do with it. Etrain is right on, as usual.
As a side note, very gutsy of Ritz to go with him for a bit and then even smarter to back off after going out in 59. He was rewarded with breaking his own state record again.
- RJJL
Just to clarify this piece was done by one of my writers Alex Fox (you can note it in the tags below). I may have to come up with a better system for this now with all the writers posting up comment able stuff going forward haha
ReplyDeleteAlso just a big thanks to the hard work everyone has put in writing for me thus far. Caleb, Garrett and Alex really worked hard during this stretch with lots of college commitments to put together some great work on the NCAA predictions (and I got trashed on said predictions) so I owe them a huge thanks for their dedication.
As mentioned, probably will be looking into an additional method for clarifying who writes what.
Also I'm always happy to get additional writers on board! I will take all sorts of writers of any age of area of the sport. I'm also cool with keeping people anonymous if you want to set up a fake email account and send me posts through it (although I'm afraid I don't think I will ever manage to get RJJL in that type of role and frankly maybe having him as an awesome occasional commentor that gets everything right is the perfect role)
What happened to Brehm?
ReplyDeleteHe used a time from last year to get into a race that he probably shouldn't have been in in the first place and ran poorly. It was his first race of the indoor season and he clearly isn't in the kind of shape he was in last year.
DeleteWatching it, no doubt he should have been DQ'd, especially after another "national champion" was already DQ'd. On a side note, the time is impressive with the fall, but does anyone think that by him cutting so much off of the track that the fall and the distance cut balance each other out? By looking at the video it looks like he need to close the final 100m around 13 seconds which is moving haha. With that being said it also looks like he need a 26 on the last lap and he went through the first half of that in around 13 seconds so it could have been possible. Guess well never know
ReplyDeleteRegardless of all the media hype and talent of ANY runner, he should have been DQ'd... plain and simple! What was the flag official doing? When/if this happens again, what's to prevent a miler from pulling out his or her "Grant (Fisher)" me another chance card? Some questionable decision making made at this meet which is surprising given that it's Nationals aligned with the New Balance brand.
ReplyDelete