Bay Sheffield runner-up Tom Sclanders becomes first placegetter in 133 years to be disqualified for inconsistent performances
Runner-up in last year’s Bay Sheffield, Tom Sclanders, has taken legal action after being stripped of his second placing by organisers, who claim he breached the competition rules. He is the first placegetter to be disqualified in the race’s 133-year history.
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South Australian sprinter Tom Sclanders has taken legal action after being sensationally stripped of his second placing in the Bay Sheffield Gift in December.
Sclanders was disqualified by the SA Athletic League (SAAL) following an investigation into his performance when narrowly beaten by Tomas Semmler in the state’s richest footrace.
SAAL, claiming it is committed to promoting the integrity of the races, determined the sprinter had seriously breached the rules of the competition with inconsistent performances.
“Unfortunately, from time to time, athletes will produce performances at the Bay Sheffield carnival that are not consistent with performances that they have previously produced,” an SAAL spokesperson said.
“Where those performances are seriously inconsistent and in breach of the rules, the SAAL is obligated to thoroughly investigate.”
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Calum Scrivens has been awarded second placing, with Liam Moss third.
Sclanders is the first Bay Sheffield placegetter to be disqualified in the race’s 133-year history and the decision has infuriated his camp.
Following his semi-final win, Sclanders was told he would be pulled 0.75 metres, only for his coach Paul Young to lodge a successful appeal.
Young, who has a lengthy, successful association with professional athletics, was scathing in his response to the disqualification and said the new handicapping model had proved a disaster.
“We are pursuing legal action against the SAAL and we have a number of statements and affidavits that prove conclusively the system was flawed and the data used is wrong,” Young said.
“I dispute categorically Tom Sclanders ran significantly better than he had previously.
“Tom had twice been in the Bay Sheffield final off seven metres, including a third in 2015.
“Numerous times Tom has demonstrated he was capable of producing the performance he did in December.
“He is 30 years of age and been running for 13 years.
“It’s preposterous to suggest he ran inconsistent to what he has done before.
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“He won the Kensington Gift last year off six metres and has a personal best of 11.10 seconds for 100 metres.
“How could they not expect him to be competitive off 8.25 metres?
Young said he coached Sclanders to peak at a major event just as he had “for any athlete, whether it be the state or national championships, the Stawell Gift or the Bay Sheffield”.
“Tom has suffered a number of setbacks in previous campaigns where he has peaked too early or sustained an injury, so we adopted a more careful approach to avoid the pitfalls of the past,” he said.
The SAAL spokesperson said the requirement to promote the integrity of races is often brought into focus at the Bay Sheffield.
“To assist with the obligation of ensuring the integrity of its races and investigating seriously inconsistent performances, over the last year the SAAL has spent significant resources to develop and implement a handicapping and stewarding IT model,” they said.
“The model provides an objective stewarding assessment of athlete performances.
“With the model in its first year of implementation, its parameters have been set very generously for athletes.”
Young has been a vocal critic of the new model, saying it made handicapping too volatile.
“This system was totally untried and untested,” Young said.
“It’s been a disaster with 30 parameter changes since the start of the season.
“And they introduced the stewarding model for the first time at the Bay Sheffield.
“They didn’t try it in the eight lead up carnivals.
“We have had multiple experts look over the system and one, a lecturer in engineering at Flinders University, has demonstrated that under this model, Usain Bolt would have been disqualified when he broke the world record in 2009.”