False starts might soon be a thing of the past
By Len Johnson AUS
April 13, 2005
The Melbourne Commonwealth Games could be the first
major outdoor meeting in the world to be conducted
under a sudden-death false start rule.
Under a rule change to be considered by the IAAF
before this year's world championships in Helsinki,
track athletes making a false start would be
immediately disqualified. At present, the first false
start is charged against the field and any athlete
making a subsequent false start is out.
The IAAF council endorsed the change last week and
will take it to its full congress in August.
Australian national champion Joshua Ross says he is
not bothered by the proposed change, even if it means
running under a new rule in Melbourne.
Ross said one advantage was that it would prevent
athletes trying to gain an edge over their opponents
by deliberately false starting at the first attempt.
"It will stop people playing games and mean that
you've got to get down to business straight away," he
said.
If the rule change is adopted, presumably it would
come in on January 1 next year. Though they would be
under no onus to do so, Australian officials would
almost certainly trial it from the start of the
domestic season in October this year.
The only major event on the calendar before the 2006
Commonwealth Games is the world indoor championships,
to be held in Moscow, immediately before the Games in
Melbourne from March 15. As few Commonwealth countries
compete significantly in indoor competition, many
athletes would be competing under the new rule for the
first time in Melbourne.
"The opinion [is] that this rule change would prevent
gamesmanship by penalising those athletes who
deliberately false start to unsettle their rivals,"
said IAAF general secretary Istvan Gyulai. "But this
is just a recommendation and congress will take a
decision in Helsinki."
Australian official Brian Roe, a member of the IAAF
technical committee, said the proposed change was not
based on specific evidence but "is more based on a
view that, yes, the current rule is workable and if we
go one step further we can eliminate gamesmanship as
well".
Roe said that, importantly, the starter would still
have discretion to stand a field up if there was
unsteadiness on the blocks that the starter felt could
not be attributed solely to one athlete.
The current false start rule had a contentious
introduction at its first test, in the world indoor
championships in Birmingham, England, in 2003.
Then, British sprinter Allyn Condon refused to leave
the track after he was disqualified. He was allowed to
run under protest but was ruled out after a post-race
hearing.
During the 2003 Paris world championships, a
second-round heat for the 100 metres descended into
farce when former US champion Jon Drummond and
Jamaican Asafa Powell were disqualified for a false
start.
The competition was held up for over 45 minutes as
Drummond at first berated officials, then lay in the
middle of the track refusing to move.
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