Day 2 Jury Decision
The Day 2 Organiser has received 4 protests about the decision to void the legs across the river. The Day Organiser and Controller decided that they did not agree with the protests and convened the jury who have now reached the following decision:
We know, both by direct observation and by some very short leg times, that a significant number of competitors crossed the river at points that had been marked as “not to be crossed”. While some people have self- disqualified the leg times shows that a number of people who crossed the river have not done so.
While the ideal solution is for all transgressors to be disqualified, there is no means of doing this on the basis of the knowledge that we have. While it would be possible to disqualify those with very short leg times, it is not practical by this means to recognise all those who crossed the river.
In view of the above, we believe that the leg is unfair. We support the organiser’s decision to remove the time for that leg. While there are some changes to positions as a result of this, the vast majority of runners benefit from the removal of advantage from those who crossed the river but did not disqualify themselves. We recognise that no solution is ideal, but we believe that voiding the leg produces the least unfair outcome.
Following further discussions after our verdict was published, we realise that the positions of many runners dropped following the reinstatement of those who self-disqualified. But the fact remains that the Organisers' decision to void the leg ensures that all runners in a class completed the same course (redefined to exclude that leg) without taking unfair advantage. A more subjective judgement about what might have happened would open up different grounds for complaints. We still believe that the Organisers' decision led to the fairest overall outcome and our verdict is unchanged.
Day 2 Jury
Neville Baker, Hedley Calderbank, Simon Errington