While the world outdoor track and field championships began in Berlin on Saturday, the IAAF Congress is hard at work behind the scenes forging new policies.
One of those policies concerns false starts in track events.
It’s an issue that seems to flip-flop from time to time. The argument boils down to this: Do you get one strike and you’re out, or do you get a break on your first false start because it is charged to the field?
Right now, the latter of the two applies. But starting next year, according to the IAAF Congress, one-strike-you’re-out will be in force, such that the new rule will disqualify athletes the first time they false start in any race.
The new rule passed with a 64 percent approval. IAAF president Lamine Diack pointed to the NCAA’s long-standing no-false-start rule as evidence that such a rule is practical and enforceable. He stated his belief that “the current rule gives sprinters the chance to play the system to deliberately false start but not be punished for it.”
I disagree.
Sprints are run on adrenaline, anxiety and reflex, brought to a momentary halt between the starter’s call of “set” and then the gun. A multitude of distractions can sound like the starting gun, from a single noise in the crowd to a plane flying overhead. Nerves can set off an athlete in a heartbeat.
The IAAF should have kept the current policy in place for the 100 meters, 200 meters and the straightaway hurdles and used the new policy for the rest of the events. True, sometimes there are false starts in the 400 and 800. I watched a teammate back in high school false-start in the two mile. But the sprints are where the rule is most tested.
How would it look if headliners Usain Bolt, Tyson Gay or Asafa Powell got tossed from Sunday’s final because of one false start?
Lucky 13 - Thirteen runners started the 13th annual Self-Transcendence 3,100 Mile Race in Jamaica, N.Y., which began June 14 and ended Thursday. The District’s Suprabha Beckjord, 53, earned her 13th consecutive victory.
That is 60 days, eight hours, 58 minutes and 51 seconds.
To grasp the magnitude of her achievements, no other woman has ever run this race even once, and no man has run more miles than her. In 13 years at 3,100 a year, Beckjord has run 40,302.23 miles on Jamaica’s 833-meter loop race course since 1997.
She loves N.Y. - Paula Radcliffe made a surprise announcement last week to race in Sunday’s New York City Half-Marathon. Her sole mission is to assess her fitness after foot surgery and decide whether to line up for the marathon at the world championships in Berlin seven days later.
“I don’t just want to jump into a world championships and put myself on the line in a world championships, in a marathon especially, when there are questions about the efficiency of my stride,” the marathon world-record holder said. “I want to test that out in a race beforehand.”
Soaring high - Bruce McBarnette of Sterling, Va., recently won the gold medal in the M50 high jump at the World Masters Championships in Finland with a leap of 6 feet, 2.75 inches.
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