Timing Issues and Handling of Social Media Concern
As a coach I try and spend my time purely and solely on the improvement the athletes under my instructions. Although occasionally you need to get involved in the other side of the sport, including officialdom and politics, if you believe it is for the benefit of the athletes in your care. The sport has had a bit of an issue with a timing mechanism. This issue has spread a bit by wild fire when the official results appeared to be slower than the training times, hand times and video analysis suggested of athletes. These comments moved on to social media, mainly Facebook, and where fuelled by the sprint fraternity, of which I am one, with athletes performing three tenths of second slower in similar conditions than they did in previous weeks. I personally was involved in these conversations, trying to ask questions and be positive as the last thing I want to happen is for the volunteer officials to leave the sport (some of them are also friends). Below ...