Reply to thread

Message

[QUOTE="BlackSquirrels, post: 2460, member: 742"]
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
[/QUOTE]

Verification

What is a Syracuse fan's favorite color?