OT: Usain Bolt

[Orangeyes]

I'd be po'd if I went to watch him race only to see him DQ'd because of one false start.

SI

 

[orange79]

really 1 false start and your done? what a joke, what idiot made these rules up :bat:

Rule was just changed recently. Not sure of the reasoning behind it. Doesn't make a while lot of sense (insert Cali cuckoo smiley)

 

[CINYer]

Seems like they changes the rule for TV scheduling.:noidea:

 

[DeGrozz]

thats like if a pitcher balks in baseball they throw you out of the game lol or a runner fakes like hes gooing to steal a base the ump says your outta here :rolling:

Unbelievably stupid rule. Word is that the 100 meter sprint in London (2012) is the most expensive ticket in entertainment right now. It's a shame that it could potentially be ruined by a false start.

 

[BlackSquirrels]

I'd be po'd if I went to watch him race only to see him DQ'd because of one false start.

SI

IMO this is the best version of the false start rule I have seen since I've been following track and field.

At one time, each member of the field was allowed one false start before being disqualified. This seemed fair for the competitors, but it was problematic because huge underdogs who had little chance of winning fairly contested races would try to anticipate the gun and get a jump on the rest of the field. This meant they had two chances to guess the gun. Races with multiple false starts became common and the resulting delays were very tedious for athletes, spectators and TV audiences.

The rule was then amended to charge the first false start to the entire field. This decreased the likelihood of delays caused by multiple false starts, but it gave a huge incentive to the inferior runners to try to anticipate the gun because the false start penalty was applied to the entire field.

I like this version of the rule because of its simplicity: whoever false starts is gone. When you buy a ticket to sporting event, nothing is guaranteed. An athlete could wake up with food poisoning; the event can get postponed due to weather.

The most interesting aspect of this story is that it appears as if the officials made a mistake in disqualifying Bolt because the runner next to him, eventual winner Yohan Blake, flinched before Bolt took off. By rule, the first person who moves should be disqualified

 

[IthacaBarrel]

It's actually a good rule and I agree with you, I remember watching track meets at U of O in Euegene and begins to be a joke with all the false starts in sprint events.

 

[Flacusian]

It's actually a good rule and I agree with you, I remember watching track meets at U of O in Euegene and begins to be a joke with all the false starts in sprint events.

Widespread Fan?