Kyle Gale has created quite the storm.
Former Olympian Victor Houston appears to be at odds with local track and field officials over Gale being stripped of his CARIFTA gold medal after questioning the validity of that disqualification.
The 44-year-old Houston expressed his concerns in a Facebook chat while arguing that Jamaica’s protest of Gale stepping on the line came long after the Bajan quarter-miler already received his 400 medal.
But Athletics Association of Barbados vice-president Noel Lynch cleared the air, having explained that video evidence is permissible at any time under the new rules of track and field.
“I’m not sure if Victor is totally familiar with the rules and how they’ve changed, and this is not just for track and field, but if you have video evidence then you are free to bring it to the officials’ attention long after the fact,” Lynch clarified.
“I think the situation is such that if that evidence was even brought a year later then Kyle would be stripped of his medal then too. And what happened was that Jamaica immediately mounted the protest after they had video evidence that Kyle stepped on the line.
“The officials would’ve sat in their room and looked at their own video evidence that clearly showed he indeed ran on the line, and more than once; so it was brought to our attention. so the disqualification stood up,” he added.
The contention comes less than a week after Gale captured the hearts of all Bajans by clocking a sensational 47.07 seconds in the 400 metres to shatter Usain Bolt’s Under-17 boys’ record.
But Gale visibly crossed lanes on at least two occasions, although it wasn’t immediately spotted by the officials on track as no flags were raised during the race.
Video evidence
The news then broke a day after Gale was disqualified when Jamaican officials provided video evidence of the infraction.
However, Houston, who serves as an assistant coach at Missouri State, took issue with the ruling for several reasons.
“There are so many red flags about this DQ that he should never lose his medal. You have 30 minutes after a race to protest. That did not happen,” wrote Houston in the post.
“His medal was given about an hour after the race so no protest could have been filed because the medal would not have been given during the protest. After a medal has been given you can’t take the medal back unless the kid was tested positive for PEDs, and he was not.”
“The official did not see it and put up a yellow flag. If a Jamaican team member had film from the stands it is not admissible for an official protest. The Bahamian officials should have never listened to that protest after the medals were given because the time frame to protest had already passed,” he added.
Lynch refuted Houston’s understanding of the rules though, saying that any type of video can be brought forward as evidence while explaining there is no time frame on the stripping of medals.
“In the world of sports nowadays everyone has a camera so no one is trying to allow people to get an unfair advantage when technology can be used to get things right,” said Lynch.
“As I explained, the protest and disqualification was brought to our attention and we had none other than Esther Maynard present there as an ATO (area technical official) and she saw there was irrefutable evidence that Kyle stepped on the line more than once.”