MADRID, 30 Jul. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The president of the Royal Spanish Athletics Federation (RFEA), Raúl Chapado, admitted this Sunday that those responsible for the women’s long jump “should have recalibrated again” their measuring station after being hit by an amateur, although with this they would have “lost 5 or 10 minutes” in the absolute Spanish Championship, whose second day was marred by errors in said test.
“Probably a recalibration protocol had to be applied and perhaps that is where the error is. They had to have recalibrated again, even if we had lost 5 or 10 minutes, to certify that this movement had not affected the measurements; the rest is being measured and it is seen that it is correct, and also leaves a record in the machine,” Chapado said before the RTVE microphones from Torrent (Valencia).
“These are circumstances that you never want to happen, but that are sometimes unavoidable and, at least, try now to carry out the procedure that corresponds to the regulations to see how the results are,” he assessed. “There is no easy day in this. The organizations of these events are very complex and, if you also have an incident of this caliber, it is even more complicated,” he added in this regard.
“The most important thing is how the procedure is established according to the World Athletics regulations, to review all the jumps that are affected by this measurement deviation and that the referee is the one who has to certify the officiality of each one of them” , indicated the next step to be taken by the RFEA.
In this sense, Chapado explained what happened during Saturday’s day in the women’s longitude final. “The measurement station, which is outside the facility, is located and protected. I want to remind you that we had to change very quickly because the wind changed during the triple jump, the fins were playing a lot and we had to do a fairly fast operation It was placed and protected well, but there was an area where there was a lot of accumulation of people”, he recalled.
“In the fourth jump of María Vicente, which is measured at 4.56 meters, it takes a long time to measure because apparently someone from the public who was passing lightly touched the measurement station and the judge did not notice. That makes it continue doing it in a normal way, but it is mandatory that when the competition ends it is recalibrated to see that everything has been correct”, insisted the president of the RFEA.
“It is there where they realize that there is in the first instance, on the first edition, a deviation of 0.198 millimeters; and when the different measurements are given, that measurement in different positions remains at 0.198, which has to be those 20 rounds. centimeters. At that moment is when the judge detects that there is a recalibration failure. The system is recalibrated but, since there is an error, it takes a long time to measure because, when it is repositioned, it is readjusted later,” he declared.
Despite everything, he did not question the record of 6.21 meters made by María Vicente. “It is a leap that María, as could be seen, is qualified to make. I don’t know the speculations based on what they are. Many times you say: ‘The references that are visual can be well or badly placed because they move or have not been moved. adjusted well…’ But it is not binding, the binding is the measurement system, which is the one that certifies the measurements and that is what it is used for,” Chapado highlighted.
“This is a situation that is exclusively the responsibility of the National Committee of Judges. The National Committee of Judges set up an investigation commission to analyze everything that has occurred. Based on what they determine, they have to issue a certificate that has to go to the referee judge. It is the referee judge who has the power to validate, readjust or cancel those jumps based on the report they are preparing now, analyzing the entire machine, all the results and equally if there are more deviations or not. That is what have to do,” he added.
“Based on that, it is the referee who has to validate the results, whatever they are, and if they are valid. Of course there are 30 minutes of appeal by the athletes. Yes, it is relatively urgent to have it today because the World Athletics classification system is over”, Chapado alluded to the final cut for the next World Cup to be held in Budapest (Hungary).
“It may have affected one of the first three athletes and we have to send World Athletics the official results today, before midnight. That’s why the investigation commission was set up last night and the judges are now studying to get that certificate on the report of what there is, which will guarantee or not if those 20 centimeters can be subtracted from those jumps and if they can be validated,” he repeated.
Chapado recalled similar situations. “It’s not the first time it’s happened; it’s not very common, but it’s not the first time it’s happened. And in fact we’ve seen marks that, even in speed, have been readjusted 10 or 12 days later because it’s been seen that the system was badly recalibrated,” he said.
“It is a complex situation, but now you have to do it with maximum transparency, maximum integrity and above all guarantee that these results are what they are. No matter how much we put 7.09 or 7.02 meters, if it is not the distance they have jumped the fins, those results cannot be certified. And if we put 6.89 or 6.82 meters, it will have to be because we have a guarantee that it is what they have jumped”, he stressed.
“What we are going to do is that the resolution that comes out of the referee be communicated to the eight athletes affected; not just three, there are eight athletes affected. And from there, if any do not agree, they have 30 minutes to make an appeal before the judge before finishing”, insisted the maximum mandator of the RFEA.
“I would like to guarantee that this series of errors will never happen, but this is sport. In all sports there are errors, in all sports there may even be malpractice, because I want to remember that in addition to poor María, who seems to We have a hobby, a jump was erased in a Spanish Championship because the judge thought that it had already been measured and it had not been measured,” he commented.
“That is to say, it has happened in the Olympic Games and there has always been controversy with a null, with a null start… You have to minimize it, you have to guarantee and work to minimize those systems, but in the end the error will always exist. I I have been related to this for 40 years and there have always been mistakes in the small competition, in the high competition and in the less high competition”, concluded Chapado.