Over the past several seasons, perhaps the most debated rule in the sport of track and field has been the false start rule. Why? Because there have been many, many questionable calls. With several athletes being thrown out of races without any visible signs of movement. And fans left feeling that they’ve been robbed of watching athletes they’ve paid good money to see perform. This is not the way to promote your sport. Especially when it affects events with many of the sport’s most popular athletes – the sprints, hurdles, and relays. Arguably the most exciting events on the track.

Why is this happening? Aside from the basics of the rule itself – which I will discuss shortly. The sport has gone from humans deciding what is, or isn’t, a false start. To putting that decision into the “hands” of a computer, and pressure sensitive blocks. That and the sport has decided that human beings can’t react to anything in faster than one tenth of a second. So, we watch athletes get in the blocks. Get in the set position. Then hear double gun shots – indicating a false start. After taking time to examine the computer to determine who “false started”. I put that in quotes for a reason that I will explain in a moment.

The biggest problem with the current false start rule, is that it doesn’t exist to help govern the event. It exists in its current form, to attempt to manage the timing of the meet – to keep it “on schedule”! Ironically however, the rule doesn’t speed the meet up, but instead actually slows it down. With the side effect of eliminating athletes that show zero signs of movement. All together a horrible rule. Perhaps the single most horrible rule in all of sports. I mean, what other sport intentionally seeks to eject competitors that have not visibly done anything wrong – Not even on instant replay? None. This rule makes no sense.

Neither did the previous version that gave EVERYONE in the field a false start if anyone false started on the first gun. With subsequent false starters being disqualified and ejected. Penalizing everyone for the transgression of one person. Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not advocating that false starts be allowed. There needs to be a method for ensuring that everyone in the race starts evenly. In managing “the event” however, the goal should be the fairness for the competitors. Not an attempt to manage meet time. We don’t try to speed up the pole vault or triple jump or high jump when they go long. Nor do we throw out distance runners when they bump and fall early race and have to be called back. So why should sprinters suffer, for the good of the meet? This makes no sense.

At the end of the day, rules should do two things. Provide competitive fairness, and allow athletes – not inanimate objects, officials, or the rules themselves – to decide the outcomes of competitions! Rules should be established to enhance competition, not inhibit it. Rules should also be consistent. They should be set so that they can be used at every level of the sport. Not changed/altered at select meets. Which is one of the biggest problems that I have with the way the false start rule is exercised today. The electronic implementation of the false start rule is ONLY exercised at meets and facilities with enough money to employ pressure sensitive starting blocks, individual speakers, and the software and computer systems necessary to operate them! In short, athletes compete all year under one system – without electronic intervention. Then when faced with championship competition, with budgets large enough to afford the necessary electronics, have another system introduced – electronic intervention. This in and of itself is inherently unfair. No other sport does this – change the rules of the game when things matter the most. Every other professional sport allows its athletes to develop their skills through the course of the season based upon the conditions that they will face during their championship run! In the sprints/hurdles what you’ve done all year, now becomes somewhat irrelevant.

Adding electronic intervention doesn’t provide fairness or enhance events. The sport runs well ALL YEAR with human beings monitoring these events. The sport’s officials do an excellent job of calling false starts and ensuring that things are fair for everyone every day, all year, all over the world. We do not need some sudden electronic intervention at the end, to do nothing but whittle down competitive fields and rob fans of athletes and matchups.

There are times in society, where the pursuit of replacing humans with “machines” is not always in the best interest of humans. That’s why recently intellectuals have called for a time out on the development of “A.I.”. Having technology determine the fate of sprinters and hurdlers is such a time for me. We don’t need “perfection”. We simply need “fairness”. Humans do a fine job of providing that fairness. Actually a better job than machines because humans are able to react to the environment. Sound in the stadium, in the air, or movement on the starting line for example. Technology is unable to monitor these things – and others. Not to mention that it introduces expenses that are impossible to replicate in a majority of our competitions. That alone is inherently unfair! The antithesis of what rules are supposed to be.

Whatever rules are in force should be consistent across the board. Meaning at all levels – high school college, post college, and elite. With the current false start rule being dependent on reaction time, there are only a handful of meets that can actually utilize and enforce this rule! Specifically major championships and some Diamond League type meets.This is highly unfair. You start based upon human intervention most of the time. Then suddenly, when it matters most, things get drastically changed.

As I said earlier, the topic of the pressure sensitive blocks and reaction time has been a very hot one the past couple of seasons. Less spoken about, but possibly more important in my opinion is this. Why do we throw athletes out of the sprints/hurdles for false start infractions at all? Athletes like Devon Allen and Richard Kilty react.001 sec faster than World Athletics deems possible so they don’t get to run at all? Why? We do not stop anyone else in the sport from competing because of infractions of any kind – let alone this minor in magnitude! If you foul a throw or jump, you get more attempts – several more. You hit the bar in the pole vault or high jump, you get a couple more attempts to clear the height! If you move too early at the start of a distance race, they call everyone back and you stay in the race. Hell if you knock someone down at the start of a distance race – within the first hundred meters – they bring everyone back and you get to compete. I’ve watched distance races where athletes push and shove each other and no one removes them! Sure, someone may get disqualified, but they get to finish competing! I just watched a guy literally shove someone completely off the track, and he got to finish the race! All sorts of things happen in the other events in the sport, but EVERYONE gets to compete and finish their events. Everyone EXCEPT SPRINTERS AND HURDLERS. Who get thrown out of their events for movement undetectable to the human eye!! This is the most ridiculous, and unfair rule in all of sports. The athletes in arguably the most tense events on the track are allowed ZERO mistakes. Not even a mistake that NO ONE CAN SEE!!

The false start rule is the most tragic in the sport’s world. It needs to be fixed, yesterday. And it’s so easy to do. Get rid of the pressure sensitive blocks and allow the starters – because there are always TWO of them – to do their job. And allow these athletes at least one infraction before ejecting them. This was the rule for over a hundred years by the way and it worked just fine. They would STILL be the only athletes not allowed to finish the competition – if that’s a must! But they are humans like all of the other competitors. Let them make a mistake and still compete. After all, that’s the purpose of putting them on the track – to compete. Just as it is for everyone else. And frankly, these are events MOST people are dying to watch. Ejecting competitors does nothing to promote the sport – something else that rules should help you do, promote the sport!

Track and field can do better. Must do better. It has enough issues without shooting itself in the foot – pun intended. Seb Coe and World Athletics. Please fix this problem.

Tags: False Start Rule, Seb Coe, World Athletics