Rules Discussion #1- protest and appeal

As part of this blog I want to review some of the rules that are important to Triathlon. Additionally if you are penalized and want some help figuring out what happened or how to avoid it (and you didn't get the explanation at the race) send over and email and I'll see what I can do. The best thing to do is wait for the pink sheet to get posted and see if you are on it. If you are and have some questions ask them then. If not it all becomes a bit more difficult.

First things first. Certain calls can be overturned and certain calls cannot. Of course everything is subject to the application of sound judgment but going by the rules here's how it works.

PROTESTS AND APPEALS

1. A PROTEST must be filed within 60
minutes of the athlete’s completion of the race, and must be in
writing.

2. The ONLY issues that may be protested
are the eligibility of an athlete to be in a particular division or the
eligibility of the equipment used by an athlete. These can both be decided by
tangible, physical evidence.

3. No judgment calls (drafting, cutting the
course, conduct, etc.) may be the subject of a protest. All protests filed
involving a judgment call must be summarily dismissed.

4. The Head Referee is responsible for
convening and chairing the protest committee.

5. An athlete may file an APPEAL within 30
days of competition.

6. Proper issues that may be appealed are
decisions made by the Protest Committee, misapplication or interpretation of a
rule by an official, drug testing or punitive action affecting a person’s USA
Triathlon membership. Position
violations and judgment calls are not appealable.

7. If an athlete wishes to file an appeal,
an official should give the individual a copy of the Appeal Form and let the
individual know of the 30-day time frame and the $100 filing fee. The form MUST be sent to the National
Office. It is the responsibility of
the athlete to file the report. The
referee must make sure that all his paperwork, particularly that pertaining to
the possible appeal, is promptly sent to the Regional Coordinator and
Commissioner.

What I think is most important about this is the key to what can and cannot happen. You cannot appeal a drafting call (or other call involving judgment) however you can ask what happened.

The referee will have a report that will say something like

#239 Female White Shirt- entered draft zone closed to 1 bike length did not complete pass within 15 seconds.

If you are not a female with a white shirt... you probably have a pretty good case that it wasn't you if not then you are stuck. The explanation should suffice. If it's a more complicated call then work with the ref to make sure you understand what happened and how to avoid it in the future. Once it's over it's over.

Protests are for things like are you a clydesdale/athena or not. Maybe you opted to use a new wetsuit that didn't appear to conform. On that you protest.

If you think a rule was misapplied or some other action occurred then you can APPEAL it. However you should be pretty sure as it's $100. This would probably be one of those cases where an unsportsmanlike conduct resulted in something more than a variable time penalty (i.e. DQ etc...).

Hopefully it never gets to that point but it's part of the rules and we have begun at the end. I'll next venture into the rules one by one starting with the most commonly cited ones. http://assets.teamusa.org/assets/documents/attached_file/filename/411/rd_2006_most_commonly_violated_rules.pdf

Complete rules here:http://assets.teamusa.org/assets/documents/attached_file/filename/193/usat_rules_download.pdf