USATF keeps screwing over the athletes on the bubble in the women’s pole vault…
On the last weekend of qualifying, a small PV-only meet produced five lifetime PRs, including three USA WPVers. There were suspicions raised about multiple aspects of the meet, and there was much discussion about whether or not the results would be rejected. The four girls that were bumped out were left hanging for days.
Two of the athletes made the trip to Eugene and two did not. The latter two _could_ not make the trip after some phone calls a little less than 48 hours before the meet with USATF where they were explicitly told: DO NOT GET ON THE PLANE. YOU ARE NOT GETTING IN UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE. Both athletes are in college and it would be an NCAA violation if their school sent them out here after having official word they were not competing.
Last night, less than 24 hours after the start of the event, USATF decided to accept these athletes. One athlete got word and was able to catch a flight VERY early in the morning today, the day of the event. The other athlete, Jade Riebold, turned off her phone when she went to bed. The word came in after 11pm her time and she didn’t find out until morning… could not get from the east coast to Eugene on that short of notice.
Fast forward a few hours, the women’s pole vault prelims get rained out. They decide to advance all vaulters to the final on Sunday.
That would give Jade enough time to catch a flight tomorrow and make it out.
USATF will not allow her to compete in Sunday’s final because she did not check in for today’s prelim.