I hate that you can just throw yourself over the finish line.
I don't understand why you can. Is it first body part to cross the line? If so, why aren't people reaching out their hands?
It's apparently your torso ( I thought it was your head). I don't under stand why it's not your feet. I'm sure there's a reason but I'm bitter that Felix would have won if that woman had kept running rather than fling herself over the finish line
(heart) That's fantastic! I've noticed that many of the athletes have been noticeably respectful of other nations' anthems.
Given the current political climate and the extremely nationalistic rhetoric coming out of more than just the US, I've found this small aspect of the games to be incredibly refreshing.
Post by WanderingWinoZ on Aug 16, 2016 8:09:27 GMT -5
Anybody have good info on why they went to the 1 false start = DQ?? Seems a little harsh - are all sports like that now? I felt bad for the runner last night.
Anybody have good info on why they went to the 1 false start = DQ?? Seems a little harsh - are all sports like that now? I felt bad for the runner last night.
It’s been called the cruelest rule in Olympic sports, if not all sports: A runner is disqualified from a track event after just one false start. No warnings, no do-overs. You’re done.
It happened to French sprinter Wilhem Belocian on Monday night in his 110-meter hurdles preliminary heat. Four years of Olympic training, gone a millisecond too soon.
Under the previous rule, the entire field was given a warning in the event of a false start; anyone in the same race who jumped the gun a second time would be disqualified, even if it wasn’t the first offender. But in 2010, the International Association of Athletics Federations changed the rule to its current draconian level because of two reasons: Under the old rule, slower runners would purposely jump the gun to throw off everyone else’s timing and give themselves an edge, and the sheer number of false starts slowed down meets and caused television broadcasts to run over their time slots.
Hence the one-strike-and-you’re-out policy, which was immediately called into question when Usain Bolt — i.e., the one sprinter who’s considered appointment television and the fastest man alive — false-started in the 100-meter final at the 2011 world championships in South Korea, earning a disqualification.
Bolt, somewhat ironically, was an initial supporter of the rule change and refused to criticize it after his own disastrous false start in 2011. Others think it’s awful.
“The sport suffers when Christine Ohuruogu and Usain Bolt get thrown out of worlds,” four-time Olympic medalist and NBC track and field analyst Ato Boldon said in 2011, via Yahoo Sports. “They changed the rule saying they were trying to save time on television, but that did not work. That has not been the case. The reason the rule hasn’t been changed back is you have an organization that’s trying to save face.”
Ohuruogu, who won 400-meter gold at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, also crashed out of the 2011 world championships, false-starting in a 400-meter preliminary heat.
The IAAF seems unwilling to change the rule though in 2012 it adjusted the definition of a false start, ruling that a sprinter’s hands had to leave the ground or their feet need to leave the blocks for it to be considered a false start (previously, a mere flinch in the blocks could earn you one). Still, the chance remains that a megastar like Bolt could see his Olympics end before the race even begins.
Maybe someone who follows track more closely remembers, but I thought Felix didn't qualify for the 200 at the trials for a similar reason--someone dove across the finish line and beat her for fourth place.
I'm very angry about the diving over the finish line thing. THAT'S NOT RUNNING!!!!!!
Totally. I know it's technically within the bounds of the rules, but I do not like it one bit!
It seems like one of those things that follows the letter of the law, but goes against the spirit of it. Yeah it technically counts, but we all know that's not what they meant when they wrote the rules.