Chris Boardman (again) pointed out that, for the VP/JV disqualification, the judge in question had already interpreted the rule in that way in a previous event, had told the competitors that that was how he was going to interpret the rules, and that on that basis Team GB had no grounds for complaint.
Presumably the rule covering mechanical failure in a track event is also open to interpretation and that Hindes knew this. I don't see any problem at all.
Warning: I know buggerall about track racing and merely parrot what I'm told by the television pundits. However, I'm a reasonably experienced chess arbiter and applying rules is what we do.
Moderately relevant anecdote alert: some years ago, a rule was required regarding use of mobile phones in tournament halls. It was decided by the BCF (who have since changed their name to ECF) that any competitor whose mobile phone went off during the game would automatically lose. However, that didn't deal with the problem as once someone has finished their game, when they are in the playing hall they are no longer a player but become a spectator. The rule therefore would not apply to these people even though the phone would cause just as much disturbance.
I suggested for the tournament in question (Essex Championship/Southern Counties' Championship with qualifying places for the British Championship) that awarding an immediate loss was not the best way of approaching this problem: firstly, the opponent of the player concerned might be in the process of conducting a brilliant attack and it wouldn't be fair to him/her to have their opportunity to display their playing skill removed by some random event outside of their control; and secondly this did not affect those competitors whose game in the round in question had finished and were therefore spectators.
We therefore announced at the start of the tournament that any competitor whose phone went off during play, whether their own game was in progress or not, would have a point deducted from their total. It was announced in advance, everyone knew what we were going to do and why, and there were no problems in that event with a mobile phone going off*. So far as I am aware this rule has not been adopted by the ECF, even though it is clearly better than the rule we were seeking to replace for the purposes of the tournament in question.
*Although there could have been. The guy who had won the BC qualifying place had finished his last round and was watching the game that was to decide the £1000 first prize. I was not far away and definitely heard the very faint noise of a mobile phone, whereupon the BC qualifier demonstrated his ability to sprint out of the tournament hall at great speed. Since no-one else seemed to have noticed, and neither of the players (one of whom was a very volatile Russian IM) in the key game was disturbed, I decided that discretion was the better part of valour and said nothing.
