Why is “anticipation” not a skill to be rewarded in Track and Field? It is in most other sports I can think of – Rugby, Cricket, Football, Basketball, Hockey, Cricket, Baseball… But also individual sports like every Racket sport and Golf.
Usain Bolt recently ran 9.43 seconds for the 100m at the World Track and Field Champs in Berlin (first man ever under 9.50), but because it took him 0.146 of a second to react to the gun he was only awarded a time of 9.58. A logical thinking person may suggest Bolt needs to work on the start and look to lower the 0.146 seconds reaction time and then he would have achieved the better time. But in fact this is not the case, because you are not allowed to start within the first 0.100 of the race in the 100m. In fact if you do once you are warned, and twice disqualified!
In other sports your time does not begin until you do (for example you have an ankle bracelet of some form when running a marathon and your time starts once you cross the start line). I understand for the spectacle of a ‘race’ it is much more desirable that the athletes run at the same time and so I am not suggesting that athletes ‘go’ whenever they want and we subtract their start time from their finish time. What I am suggesting is that it seems strange that someone should be penalised for accurately anticipating the start. In 2010 the IAAF will have a no tolerance policy to false starting. I think at the same time they should change the rule so athletes are only ‘false started’ if they start before the gun (ie before 0.000 on the clock).
For other left field posts see:
Yodelling Diet (and you thought diets didn’t work – shame on you!)
Athletics vs Swimming (aka: Why running backwards should be an Olympic Sport)
Tags: Athletics, Reaction Time, Track and Field, Usain Bolt
