Usain Bolt, world record holder at 100 and 200 meters, false started in the World Championship 100M final and was DQed under a new rule from last year.
Much screaming has ensued to have the rule changed.
The previous rule charged the first false start to the field and DQed any competitor who false started after that.
He was out very early. Tough cookies.
While I think the current rule is too severe, at least the officials applied it without fear or favour. So I guess I’m in the tough cookies camp as well.
High school and college athletes have been subject to this rule for years and yet they have less experience than those who compete at the World Champs.
I feel the rules should get more strict as you climb the ladder, not the other way around.
They have more experience with that rule though. If you go your entire life thinking that speeding will get you a ticket, then the next day they jail you for a year.. welll I can understand.
I thought the false start to the field was stupid before. This does not help that opinion.
( I think they should go with a countdown, not a secret start anyway.)
How would a countdown work with the timing system?
Have the timer start when the countdown hits zero? Or am I missing something?
Joe
The current system uses an electrical contact or microphone to start the timing system with the shot being the audible cue.
Even with a countdown, there would still be a need for a consistent start signal and runners would still be trying to anticipate the start signal and a false start rule would still be needed.
Drag racing uses an automatic light system. Both drivers “stage up” - getting set shortly behind the start line. As soon as the last driver stages a light comes on. Seven seconds later three yellows go on - and then the green 4/10 of a second later! “Red-light” and you’re disqualified.
Yeah, a drag style Christmas tree system would be pretty cool. I’m all for letting Usain (and others) perform a burnout beforehand too to bring their shoes up to temperature.
Under the old system, if anybody false started, they’d all be subject to DQ for a false start on the next attempt. I’d think that at least one of the eight always think they had a better shot after a DQ than not, and intentionally DQ? Yet I’ve never seen that. Any one know why? (Or maybe some runners do do this at the lower levels?)
I think the rule is harsh, and it robbed the crowd of a chance to see the world’s fastest man in action. It’s not a good rule for the athletes, they train all year for these showpiece events, and then a twitch under pressure ruins it. However, the current rule is in place because sprinters were gaming the system, either trying to jump the gun and get an advantage, or deliberately false-starting to put their competitors under pressure. What I’d like to see is a small time penalty (maybe 0.05 or 0.1 sec for the 100M) for false-starters. That would prevent any gamesmanship, while still allowing a credible race to go ahead.
Maybe they should do away with the idea of a start completely. Instead of having all the racers run together, have them run one at a time. The blocks already have sensors to detect the exact start time for the runner, so that could be used to compute the exact time for each runner’s race.
It seems strange, but competing one at a time works for all the field events, and many other racing events like speed skating and cycling have races run in series.
That’s a tough rule.
You’d figure it’d make the new champ feel a little more humble being he didn’t beat Bolt.
::watches video::
I guess not…
That’s not a bad idea. Don’t post any times until everyone has competed. If nothing else maybe Usain would push the full distance instead of gliding and looking back once he knows he’s got it won.
It would be to unwieldy to do that with track races. There are far too many competitors at a big meet, you could spend all day just running the 100s.
With speed skating and cycling, it’s a safety issue and it works as there are fewer events compared to track.
With field events, there can be several going at the same time in different areas.
Can’t you fit more than one 100-meter race on a track at the same time? I’d think you could even run a few side-by-side with independent starts (say, 3 per side of the oval with empty lanes in between - so six total per “heat”).
Or hell, just line them up as we do now, give an “all clear”, and then they can all start whenever they want after that with the “start time” being unique for each racer.
Are you all serious about this? The exciting thing about track races is that they are just that - a race!
Exactly! I don’t want to see 8 individuals running alone, then superimposed on top of each other via trick photography. I want to see a heat of 8 people trying to beat one another. Running as individuals eliminates the gamesmanship, the strategy, the agony and the ecstasy; the whole drama of competition.
Yeah, that’s probably true… it certainly has much more dramatic and visceral appeal to watch them running side-by-side.
I was merely pointing out that it is probably “technically possible”.
For false starts I think I’d prefer a two-strikes and you’re out rule - is there a reason they don’t do this?