Update-Sacramento Bully incident

[jumpinjoe]

Can you believe this!
Turns out Alan Bell was the messenger, acting on "orders" from one Serge Beckers, according to this email
response that I received.

Hello Joe,

I have read your answer completely. I saw you were upset, actually I saw it all because I was present, I was the person dressed in the purple shirt standing next to Alan Bell.

You must understand some things :
1. Alan Bell is the person which has been contracted by the LOC as the Competition Director for this Championship with the approval of WMA. On operational matters in the stadium he has the last word. Also, he is a highly certified Official (that's why he has been asked for the position) and an International Starter (by the way, he is the Official Starter for the Olympics 2012). So his credentials can not be doubted.

2. I am the Vice President Stadia of WMA, Serge Beckers. In that capacity I have the final responsability of the technical conduct of all stadia events. You can understand that I keep a close eye on what happens.

3. Since the Competition Manual clearly states what you have written, it is clear that all training should be done at American River College Stadium, except for the pole vaulting which is allowed at Sac State. But this can only happen in the afternoon, as long as there is no vaulting competition going on (see the competition manual).

4. I had seen you on the pole vault area already around 10Hrs20. Since this was against the statements in the Competition Manual, I asked Alan Bell if someone had allowed you to train on the pole vault area. He assured me it came not from him and he did not know of anyone authorizing you. I then asked Alan Bell as Operational Executive (Competition Director) to ask you to leave the pole vault area, since it was only allowed to train in the afternoon. He did so. In the mean time the semi finals of the 100m were going on as well as the triple jump and long jump. I noticed that Alan Bell had to repeat several times the request to leave the pole vault area, since you would not comply with this request right away. Finally, Alan Bell raised his voice a little bit. At that time I came over to see from nearby what was happening. In actual fact, you were not leaving the pole vault area, but started to being hartheaded. You started to talk back, came up with your note book and looked at the badge of Alan Bell and wrote down the name of the Competition Director. At that time, you were also already made aware that the University Police was asked to come over to evict you from the pole vault area and that you could come back at 12.30Hr to train. The policeman came over, and also Rex Harvey (coming from the triple jump). I assume he was the person to which you refer to as the Meet Referee. Alan Bell, Rex Harvey and myself were talking over what had happened. Rex Harvey then told Alan Bell to give you a yellow card for unbehaving conduct as an athlete and to let you be escorted out of the area. The yellow card was not given. You clearly did not settle down and only left the area under loud comments ("Oh are you really going to use the afternoon thing against me"). You wanted to shake hands with Alan Bell which he refused since you had badmouthed him and had not complied with his orders.

5. You must understand, at the age category M65, with all your experience that your conduct is not done. For all the above abuse that Alan Bell had to take from you, you could have been sent off the track and taken out of competition for unsportsmanlike conduct. We did not do that until this point. However, if you want to continue to make a spectacle of yourself by for instance sending emails to the whole WMA Council, you subject yourself to possible actions to be taken against yourself.

6. As a consequence of your actions, we know are discussing if we will still allow pole vaulters to train in the afternoon in Sac State. This is in actual fact what you have accomplished. That perhaps no one will be able to train for the next days over there whenever there is a competition going on (not only pole vault). What a great succes.

7. I think it would be wise and helping yourself to think back about your actions. Whenever you come to the understanding that you did not behave as a normal athlete, you could perhaps start by apologizing to Alan Bell for the abuse he had to take from you, the next time you see him. And you could perhaps also apologize to the people you send this email to and had nothing to do with it, but you thought to have to involve them.

8. It is now 23.48Hr on our rest day (36 Hours later). This incident has taken more than enough time. If I hear something more of this incident, I can assure you that the appropriate measures will be taken right away.

Yours sincerely,

Serge Beckers
Vice President Stadia World Masters Athletics

[rainbowgirl28]

The manual says:

Because the vault poles for rent will be stored at Sacramento State and all open competitions will be held at that facility, pole vault practice will be at Sacramento State in the afternoons of competition days after vault competitions for the day are complete. Athletes with their own poles may practice at ARC.

Sounds a little vague to me. What time does afternoon start? Probably not at 10:30am, but if it was going to be such a big deal, they should have defined it more clearly IMO.

[Bubba PV]

I've been by twice in the afternoons and seen vaulters practicing alone.