What if the reaction time rule was changed to 0.000000?
Is that not fair? Any sprinter leaving the blocks after the gun has been
fired SHOULD be legal. Regardless of what criteria one uses for reaction
time, it is arbitrary and actually creates cheating. For example: If a
sprinter's best reaction time is +0.3, and he/she "cheats" to within 0.001 of
the limit, then he/she is still legal. The gray area between a fast reaction
to the gun and anticipating the firing of the gun is entirely too arbitrary.
Heck, anticipating the gun is an athletic artform, perfected by athletes over
an entire career. It is PART OF THE RACE. The reaction time rule NEEDS to
be changed. It needs to be 0.000000. The technology should be used to
actually stop real unquestionable cheating, not used to "judge" whether a
person has cheated versus extended the abilities of the human species.
Now, with a new reaction rule in place, anything faster than 0.000000 is
CLEARLY a case of getting caught cheating (for the largest majority of the
times). In my opinion, if the reaction rule is 0.000000 AND you want to
throw them out on the first offence, FINE! It's fair for everyone. I
propose to you that the current problem with false starts is the reaction
time rule. Otherwise, a no false start rule, coupled with a reaction time
rule greater than 0.000000 is ludicrous.
