Hard-hearted as it seems, rules are made to be kept

By PETER CALDER

I was 11 at the time and, athletically, had neither aspirations ahead of me nor achievements behind as I lined up for the hurdles race. So I was as surprised as anyone when I cleared the last row in second place, and more stunned when the leader stumbled and fell, and I felt for the first time in my life the tape across my chest.

Afterwards, the stumbler derided my victory. "You wouldn't have won if I hadn't fallen over," he sneered.

It soured the sweet taste of success but my father came to my rescue later.

"I always thought part of a running race was staying on your feet until it's finished," he said.

It's a simple truth the Australians should have been mulling over as they got worked up about the disqualification, barely 150m from a golden victory, of 20km walker Jane Saville.

The disqualification was unquestionably the sensation of day 13 - and it would be a hard heart indeed that would not feel compassion for the woman who came so close to gold.

Yet - and maybe everyone's getting a bit tired and needs a lie-down - those whose voices have been raised in Saville's defence seem to think this is not simply a tragedy but a scandal.

The tabloid paper the Daily Telegraph called it "the most excruciating example of vile sporting misfortune that it is possible to imagine" which is simply hyperbole but not wrong.

But columnist Mike Hurst went further and said the sport could not be taken seriously when it is about technique which is "a matter of opinion."

Saville's coach - who may have temporarily taken leave of his senses - bizarrely suggested a political motive.

And Simon Baker, the deputy chairman of the Australian Track and Field Athletics Commission, who should have known better, called it a "ludicrous result."

Ironically, the athlete herself was the most clear-eyed about it. She collapsed in distress when the chief judge held up the dreaded last red card but she quickly composed herself to shrug that "that's race walking" and "I will have to fix up my technique."

A discus thrower may not walk out of the front of the circle even if her discus landed 10 minutes ago and has been returned to her. It will be a no-throw. It may seem silly but it's a rule and everyone knows about it.

Walkers must have one foot in contact with the earth at all times (there's a name for people who don't: runners) and they have to keep the front leg straight until it becomes the back leg, which accounts for that odd rolling gait.

Saville didn't. On at least three occasions, she was adjudged to have "lifted." This wasn't - as Hurst suggests - a matter of opinion but of fact. Friday's papers were full of pictures of Saville's feet more than 2cm off the ground. I found it hard to see on live-speed TV, but that's why they are judges and I'm not.

And, incidentally, none of the three judges who reported her for lifting knew that any of the others had. Each runner approached each judge with a clean slate.

Saville broke the rules. She was out. End of story.

It's heartbreaking - although for my money it pales beside the story of a gymnast robbed of a medal because she took a cold pill her doctor gave her - but let's keep it in perspective.

The Australians have been, until this, gracious in defeat - though God knows they've had little enough of it to be gracious about. But if they want a steer on how to approach Saville's misfortune, they should take a tip from the Channel 7 satirists Roy and HG.

Over footage of the Australian hockey team's centre half collapsing in grief after missing a penalty in a shootout and letting the Dutch slip into the men's final, they expressed the only appropriate view.

"That's it," they said. "He's missed it. He's let everybody down. He's a disgrace to his country."

Now that's more like it.