Wednesday afternoon Spartan announced via social media that, after further discussion, they will overturn the disqualifications of Ryan Woods and Hunter Russel on the A-frame cargo.
Recap:
- Both Woods and Russell were spotted placing their hands on the truss (metal) section ascending the A-frame cargo. This is a direct violation according to the Spartan Rule book, p.14. The penalty for this is to have the athlete repeat the obstacle.
- The violation was not acknowledged by officials until the athletes completed the race, therefore the opportunity to redo the obstacle was not given.
- See also: Did Ryan Woods DQ – Did He Get a Fair Shake?
- Tuesday evening Spartan sent out the below announcement on their social pages:
After hours of discussion, Spartan competition committee and board of athletes have decided the following:
- The disqualification of Ryan Woods and Hunter Russel has been overturned.
- Each athlete was given a five-minute penalty added to their time
- Ryan Woods takes 12th position (both in gender and overall) with a new time of 1:08:46
- Hunter Russell takes 32nd position with a new of time of 1:17:13 – note according to the Spartan website Hunter is 32nd overall and 27th in age/gender. The announcement refers to his placement overall.
- Points were not available at the time of publication, but some points are better than no points.
I'd recommend heading over to Spartan IG TV for the full 20-minute video. They break down the infractions and touch on how they came up with a five-minute penalty. However, if you cannot watch the full twenty minutes here are a few key takeaways:
- The rule for A-frame was originally written to discourage the use of metal descending the obstacle.
- Any metal touched on the A-frame is illegal and warrants a penalty. By default everyone should be DQ'd since pretty much everyone touches the top of the A-frame.
- There is a limited window when disqualifications can occur. They can only occur during the race until the awards ceremony, as this is when race results are being finalized. Once the awards ceremony occurs, the standings are final.