Sixty Minutes – Sort of

At the State Track meet, I had the opportunity to talk to the person who “moderates” the track and field rules meeting for the National Federation of High Schools. She asked me how, as an official, I handle the “sixty minutes” rule. I answered honestly: that if I was at a height change, with two or three left to come in at that height, and 58 minutes gone – I might do a lot of “fiddling around” before setting the bar. Then, give them their 2 minutes of warmup time (per athlete).

I did that because surely sixty minutes would be gone before they actually vaulted the height, and because of the “height change” portion of the rule (warmups could only be taken at the height change) they wouldn’t get a warmup without passing to the next height. It was filed (in my head) as common sense; “kinder-gentler” officiating.

I’m sure a lot of officials did this in one way or another. She noted that this was one of the rule changes in discussion for the 2027 track season.

This new rule was not “because of me”. It was coming, and she was just getting some feedback on it. So here it is:

6-8-6: In vertical jumps, offers officials flexibility in providing athletes warm-up at the height change if the 60 min mark already occurred or would occur during the height that is about to begin.

Rationale: To address instances where the 60-minute mark occurs mid-height before the athlete made their first attempt, this alternative rule change grants affected athletes the opportunity to warm up. It maintains the requirement that warm-ups take place during a height change while giving the contest official the flexibility to make a judgment call based on the situation.

So here’s my example. The competition starts at 10:00 am, with the bar at 8′. Vaulters C, D, and E pass to 10-6, five heights above starting heights. At 10:55 the last vaulter clears 10-0, and 7 vaulters remain in the competition, including C, D, and E who have not entered.

Clearly, after measuring and setting the bar and with 4 others competing, C, D, and E will not start vaulting before the 60 minute mark. Instead of “fiddling around”, the official can simply allow them to take their 2 minutes on the runway (individually, first C, then D, and finally E) at the 10:55 mark, by rule. They still will not begin competition before the 60 minute mark – and it really doesn’t matter. It just makes common sense, and lets officials do what they already were doing – before the rule was written.