The athletics people who swear by tradition got on their back legs in February when the CEO of the International Association of Athletics Federations World Athletics (WA) Jon Ridgeon told about the project in the organization’s research pipeline. In the horizontal jumps, i.e. the long jump and the triple jump, the current 20-centimeter-wide effort plank would be replaced by an effort area.
The length of the jump would no longer be measured from where the plank ends, but with the help of laser technology from where the toe of the athlete’s slipper was exactly at the moment of effort. The nature of the species would change a lot.
Finnish Sports Confederation’s leading rules expert, competition manager Mika Muukka tells what can be told about it at this stage.
– According to the best information, the width of the effort area would be either 30 centimeters or the current plank, i.e. 20 centimeters. If the decision was 30 cents, there would be a 30-cent plank or a comparable effort platform at the end of the speed track. There would be a separate marking for the so-called zero line. If the jump started before the beginning of the effort zone, it would be measured from the tip of the effort zone as it is now, and the athlete would lose a considerable amount of centimeters. So, in that situation, it would not be measured in terms of effort.
Above the effort zone, the jump would therefore be measured from the tip of the slipper to the point of effort where such advanced measurement technology would be in use. Almost everywhere is not.
Pain relief in sport circles was collective. Ridgeon’s plans have received cold treatment from practically all active and retired athletes who have spoken about it.
Antti Pihlakoski sits on the WA competition committee and board, where his colleagues include e.g. a former ME man from the triathlon Willie Banks.
– Willie has taken the matter quite calmly, but his good friend Mike Powell vehemently oppose. He has told Willie that if such a reform is made, his record should be 906, laughs Pihlakoski in an interview with Urheilu.
Powell jumped the current long jump ME 895 at the 1991 Tokyo World Championships in an epic performance Carl Lewis against. According to Powell, his ME jump would have started 11 centimeters before the measurement point, i.e. the tip of the board, in which case, with a really new interpretation, it would have been a nine-meter phantom line breaker.
Pihlakoski now wants, so to speak, to pour oil on the waves in a matter that arouses intense emotions.
“Lived his own life”
– Jon’s (Ridgeon’s) statement has almost started to live a life of its own. It is true that this kind of thing has also been researched in WA, but we have different research projects going on in practically every sport of ours. No decisions of any kind have been made, and if they were made, they would not come into effect until 2026 at the earliest.
– The most urgent interpreted it to mean that we would plan a one-meter effort area familiar from children’s athletics, but by no means are we. In my opinion, increasing the effort range of 20 cents by 10 cents would not affect the nature of the species so terribly radically.
Pihlakoski admits that he is skeptical about the progress of the matter.
– I could see that something like that could perhaps be possible in one-night athletics galas. I don’t see the need for it in value competitions.
Various technical reforms are being explored because WA, like many traditional forms of sport, is interested in what kind of athletics and in what kind of packages the new generations of spectators want to watch. For example, various infographics have been found to be of great interest to viewers. These typically include, for example, the success of a long jumper’s or triple jumper’s effort in relation to the margin of play given by the plank, or the legal height of a pole vaulter’s and high jumper’s performance.
Watch a merciless opponent
The international umbrella organization has identified the same as the runners as its most ruthless opponent: the clock.
– The duration of field sports has been found to be a critical monitoring target. For example, in the long jump, up to 30 percent of the performances can be overstepped. When, in addition, it takes 35-40 seconds to manage a successful jump, i.e. measure it, announce the result and lay down the sand, it stretches the duration. In this new way, the number of oversteppers would clearly decrease, and the results of the jumps would be obtained practically in real time, Pihlakoski reminds.
– If the measurement and administration of the jump could be speeded up, it would mean that more performances would be seen on live TV, Pihlakoski refers to the fact that even top jumps are often seen on tape in TV broadcasts dominated by running sports.
If the new measurement method had been used at the World Indoor Championships in Glasgow at the beginning of March, the winner would have changed. Italian Matteo Furlani would have won the first title of the sport Miltiadis Tentoglouwho now took the gold with a so-called better record than both jumped at their best 822. Tentoglou’s second best jump was 815, Furlani’s 810.
Before the measurement upheaval planning, long jumpers have been angered by the fact that the planks have become more unpredictable when the wax area previously attached to them, which revealed overstepping, has been removed and replaced with electronic overstepping detection. The small platform at the junction between the wax area and the board gave stability and a good grip under the footwear. For example, at the World Championships in Budapest last summer, the Bahamas LaQuan Nairn was badly injured in the qualifying after slipping on the board.
A running legend Michael Johnson presented recently his thoughts of his own from his track and field tour, which would practically only be based on running. Of the field sports, Johnson would include only those that could be completed in 15 minutes. The requirement is impossible for a meaningful implementation that respects field sports in any way.
– The fact that Johnson came out with his own plans has not affected WA’s operations in any way, says Pihlakoski.
He reminds that there is only one sure reform: in the 100-800 meter races, in both hurdle races and in both relays, starting next year, nine runners or teams will be able to reach the finals of the prestigious competition every time they compete in a 9-lane stadium.
There is much more in the air, but Pihlakoski emphasizes that specifically in the air:
– Decision-making is three-tiered, i.e. the board, the competition committee and the athletes’ committee are involved, which is listened to with a sensitive ear.
In the athletes’ committee, for example, long jump and triple jump issues are discussed Jasmine Todd and Henry Frayne.
Pihlakoski says that WA has considered, for example, a mile or 1609 meter steeplechase and a slight lightening of the women’s throwing equipment, so that the arcs would be longer.
– There is not really such a need in women’s moukari.
At the same time, certain world records of superchemically trained athletes from countries that have already passed into history would be eliminated when statistics would start from the beginning.
The most interesting idea is undoubtedly related to the pole vault and high jump. In order to resolve the tie, the idea has been toyed with, where the color shade of the medal would be decided by which jumper was at the higher legal height when he exceeded his remaining height.
Urheilu met a retired long jumper, a coach starting a career at the Liikuntamylly sports hall in Myllypyro Roni Ollikainen, who finished sixth at the European Championships in Helsinki 2012. He has followed the discussion about the need for change related to his sport with a tight lip. And debate related to other sports.
– Take, for example, the pole vault and high jump idea. Will we soon be in a situation where we will leave the bar and just use technology to see who went the highest? I don’t understand these needs for change, or at least the way they are going to be met. I can’t believe that there isn’t another way to get the crowd interested and the kids to do it. And I haven’t heard of anyone in the sport taking this any other way.
Ollikainen demonstrated to Urheilu what the change might mean by Liikuntamylly’s sand pile.
“Is it still a plank?”
– You should know what is under the point of effort. Is it still a plank that usually has a bit of a hollow point underneath that gives it flexibility under effort? Or is it something else? You can really push yourself even from the track.
Ollikainen reminded that, in addition to physical performance, all field sports in athletics essentially involve a skill element.
– It’s quite clear that a larger effort range than the current one removes the skill requirement from the long jump, which I don’t like. For example, I was quite slow as a long jumper myself, but I knew the technique quite well.
The aforementioned Carl Lewis was great in both the sprint and the long jump. There was a similar case on the women’s side, for example Weak Drechsler-Bryggare. In recent history, combining sports at the top level has been rare.
When the idea of easing the technical requirement has been floated in WA, one cannot escape the thought that this would also lower the threshold for the best sprinters to qualify for the long distance, where the entertainment value would increase at the same time.
Usain Bolt and 10 meters?
– It is possible if you have a childhood and youth behind you, where you have jumped a lot. But it doesn’t work that way Usain Bolt would have entered the long position and jumped 10 meters. It’s a completely different thing to know how to make an effort and to accept that effort. I would say that Bolt would have fallen below eight meters and the places would have been so sore that he would not have been able to compete in his main sport for a while. In itself, I would very much like the sprinters to join, but it requires such an exercise background that one has acquired resilience to the load of the long jump.
Direct words from the Swedish legend
7-time winner of the three-point competition, Olympic gold medalist in Athens 2004 Christian Olsson admits that he is disgusted by the thoughts of change.
– This would remove a lot of the drama associated with the long jump and triple jump, because easing the most crucial element, i.e. effort, would also significantly remove the psychological pressure, which endurance is the salt of all elite athletics. The long and triple jump competition is not always won by the one with the greatest physical conditions, but by the one who controls the situation and his nerves and knows the sport best, says Olsson from Gothenburg.
The Swede took a moment to estimate what his best quote would have been if the measurement he was talking about had been in use twenty years ago.
– A few centimeters less than 18 meters.
Technology good tire
The legend, who works as an expert on Swedish TV, likes new technology if it stays on track.
– Every field sport has its own technical skills that take years to learn, and they should not be made easier or simplified. Athletics must not turn into engineering either. With this same logic, you can think about whether the reaction times should be reduced from the final times in sprints as well.
Olsson does not believe that the reforms will go through, at least from the WA sportsmen’s committee, of which he is a former member.
– The duration of field sports was already on the table from time to time during my tenure. But the essence of our sport is plank, sand pile, red flag and white flag. If there are such challenges related to time duration, let them be countered in another way, such as the number of athletes participating in the final competition or the number of jumping rounds.