Southern Section Hurdles Controversy, Decides on a Rerun

The Southern Section decided Wednesday to rerun the girls’ 100-meter hurdle race from last Friday’s Masters track and field meet, a move that benefits a Mission Viejo runner disqualified after running through one of the hurdles.

A statement released by the Southern Section confirmed that “due to an administrative error, the placement of a flight of hurdles was incorrectly set.” The race will be rerun at 2 p.m. Friday at Cerritos College, about four hours before the state championship preliminaries are scheduled to begin.

The third row of hurdles were placed about four feet further than they should have been, officials said, leading to the disqualification of Mission Viejo junior Dana Bethel.

Bethel, who finished runner-up in the event at the state finals last season, lost her pace, pushed the third hurdle over with her hand and was disqualified. Other runners made up for the difference by adding a fourth step to their normal three-step sequence, then stretching out to clear the hurdle with their off leg.

“I’m just pleased that it came through for me.” said Bethel, whose family hired an attorney to fight for the rerun. “I’ve been training really hard for this race. I’m really surprised. I was afraid they weren’t going to change their minds.”

The official time for each competitor who finished the race was another strong indicator that something was wrong. Runners finished between a half to a full second slower than what they ran on the same track at the section finals a week before.

The controversy caused some in the track-and-field community to call for videotaping of all events, or at least critical meets like the Masters’ finals.

“You could put [a camera] in every corner of the track,” said Esperanza Coach Al Britt, whose runner, sophomore Julie Handy, qualified fifth in the event. “That would end any confusion.”

Currently, the National Federation of State High School Assns.’ rule book puts athletes like Bethel in a no-win situation, critics say. The governing body in the United States for high school track and field only allows reviews of video shot by meet officials. But meet officials rarely, if ever, videotape races.

Jim Bastian, an Irvine attorney representing Bethel and two other non-qualifiers, provided the Southern Section a videotape of the race Wednesday, but it was unclear if it played a part in the decision.

The Southern Section would not comment on its decision-making process.

It’s not unusual for the Southern Section, or any other meet organizer, to rerun an event. After some runners tangled and fell just meters from the finish line of the Division III boys’ 1,600 relay two weeks ago, participants were allowed to rerun the race and attempt to qualify for the Masters meet.

At the Flojo Memorial Arcadia Invitational in April, the boys’ 110 hurdles was run again because officials ruled the starter’s pistol malfunction caused Rickey Harris of Centreville High in Clifton, Va., to pull up because he thought there was a false start. Harris won the second race in a nation-leading time.

At the 1985 Southern Section finals, the 110-meter hurdle races were found to be a meter short, forcing the rerun of the Division 3-A finals. The same year at the Masters Meet, the girls’ 800 meters was rerun when three runners tangled and fell near the finish line.