Runner removed for contrasting undershorts

HEREFORD, Md., Oct. 29 (UPI) -- A suburban Baltimore school official stood by his decision to remove a runner for wearing undershorts with contrasting stitching, costing the boys team title.

"The (uniform) rule has no bearing on the race, but it's in the book, which makes it one of the regulations that we have to follow," Steve Smith, the Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association interpreter for the National Federation of Track and Cross Country Rules, told The Baltimore Sun.

At Monday's Baltimore County cross country championships, Smith disqualified a Hereford High School runner, who had finished fourth, as well as seven boys from competing teams, for uniform violations.

The Hereford runner's outfit would have been all right a year ago, Becky Oakes, assistant director of the National Federation of State High School Associations in Indianapolis, told the newspaper.

But the federation has now voted to bar runners from wearing visible undergarments of more than one color.

The disqualified athlete's undershorts were black, with white stitching.

The rule states, "Items displaying seams stitched on the outside of the garment in a visible contrasting color to the undergarment will be illegal beginning with the 2009-10 school year."

Oakes defended the new ruling, saying uniform conformity is vital.

"Your cross country uniform is supposed to say that 'I'm from high school XYZ,'" she said. "Philosophically, that's what 'team' is all about."