I got bad attire for my two lifts from all three judges
and thats almost exactly what I wore for the full meet and there wasnt a problem
whats the deal?
The
current rules are very clear on long pants not being allowed:
E. Lifting attire and equipment
1. The lifter must wear clothing that leaves the knees and elbows bare at all times during the lifts in the form of a T-shirt and a pair of shorts. In addition, non-supportive underwear and appropriate shoes must be worn with or without socks. Women may additionally wear a commercial bra or sports bra.
[...]
b) Shorts: Shorts should preferably reach about mid-thigh, but the legs must be clearly above the knees. The shorts must fit the lifter without being baggy or tight. Shorts made of canvas or any supportive material, cut-off jeans and walking shorts are forbidden. No belt may be worn in addition to a lifting belt as defined in these rules.
BUT, as you say, you also wore long pants in the
March 2008 powerlifting meet on the bench press (but not on the deadlift where you are wearing shorts). In addition, you wore the same set of long pants in the
military bench meet. The military bench meet is doubly embarrassing for us since
Michael Amos got flagged for bad attire in the same meet wearing long sleeves instead of a T-shirt. Obviously, the deal is that the judges (including me on the military bench press) somehow failed to notice that your lifting attire was against the rules.
Obviously, if you were to have been flagged down properly the first time this happened, you would probably not have worn long pants for this meet and would have gotten at least your opener through. My sincerest apologies. The judges clearly need to pay more attention and to make sure that they have the rules clearly in mind when doing their thing in the future. The rules are still in draft since we are in the process of adding the weightlifting rules to the current draft, so if anyone wants to raise the topic of changing any aspects of it we would be interested in hearing your arguments
rules draft thread. One of my main aims behind this site is to simulate a real meet to the extent possible so that those interested in real world competitions get some experience with that process. In this respect, shorts are the norm and to me embody one of the clearest symbols of RAW lifting. Our rules in general are by and large based on those of existing federations, primarily the IPF, with some modifications to cater for the peculiarities of virtual competition. That said, the bottom line is that we need to agree on the rules and then do our utmost to stick to them in order to run this professionally. As your case shows, we may not have been quite successful with this so far.
The current rules do not have any provisions for changing the calls of lifts in retrospect unless there is evidence that the lifter has cheated in some manner. Adding such a rule may also prove counterproductive in the long run. Therefore, the only solution I see is to let those lifts that passed with you wearing long pants stand. After all, we don't go back and change calls on squat depth or the bench pause after the fact either. As in sports in general, judging mistakes will happen from time to time and that's part of the game... but with three judges, we should expect that something this obvious get flagged.
Many thanks Tom for bringing this up, we needed to know about this. The project is still young, and we have work ahead of us on all fronts, this being one.
