Sounds to me like it could be (not necessarily IS) another one of these, "vote first, think later" rules the Federation is so fond of enacting. Jewelry prohibition is a good example - sounds good to keep kids from looking like rap stars during a race, but then it results in hundreds of stupid DQs.
I recall the height of the rules committes stupidity was a few years back when they decided to break ties for vertical jumps on total attempts, rather than misses, even though no other body did so. Maybe they thought it would speed up those events by making people take a lot of passes. -- Jim Gerweck Running Times
