The women’s speed hurdle competition became the biggest topic of conversation at the athletics championships held over the weekend. The meager steals once again stirred up the domestic athletics crowd.
– It’s frustrating when you have a really hard charge and a good mood, so sometimes you even have to be a little afraid if you dare to react fully, rejected in the final Lotta Harala says directly to Urheilu.
Aituri refers to the reaction time limit of 100 milliseconds to be condemned as a stolen start. If the athlete reacts to the starting shot faster than that, according to the rules, it is a stolen start. Harala’s reaction time in the Helsinki WC final was 99.5 milliseconds.
Expert at KIHU, the research center for competitive and elite sports I met Keränen confirms that there have been cases in studies where the reaction time of the subjects has been less than one hundred.
In practice, it is therefore possible that an athlete will be rejected as a result of an excellent reaction and start.
– This is unfair to the athletes. A bit like being told to an athlete that you were rejected because you ran too hard, Keränen elaborates.
A star diver known as a strong starter Reetta Hurske commented to Ilta-Sanom a few years ago about the challenge of leaving.
– If I focus normally and leave with a bang, the result is a stolen start, he said at the time (you switch to another service) and referred to the 2017 European Indoor Championships.
Hurske, who broke Finnish records this reign, did not want to comment to about the stolen start issue, but signaled that he would focus on the upcoming EC halls and the remaining competitions of the reign.
We are trying to solve the problem
According to Harala, the athlete himself knows when the runner anticipates and when he reacts to a bump. He was immediately satisfied with the start of the weekend’s final.
– My feeling was that I got a really good start, but I didn’t start before the bang, the first time I returned to the games from a long competition break this winter.
Disqualified in the 60 meter preliminaries on Saturday Anniina Korttemaa says his weekend rejection decision was made without reviewing the slow motion footage. According to the runner, it would be a better solution if the few thief starts were solved with a human eye.
– If you can’t see the stealing with your eyes, then you could give a warning or the opportunity to run under protest, says Korettemaa.
Acting as an international athletics judge Pasi Oksanen says that the thief’s start interpretation is discussed regularly in the game. The topic came up strongly in connection with last summer’s World Championships in Eugene.
– There were much faster reaction times in the Games than in any Games in 20 years, Oksanen said.
Read more: The Finnish judge wonders about the reasons behind the starfisher’s rejection – the situation could have been avoided with a simple method: “This is all about physics”
Oksanen was part of the International Athletics Federation’s working group, which, among other things, heard about the company that produced the false start system technology for the Games. The group also brought up, for example, measuring reaction time from something other than the feet, which are currently measured from. There were no changes to this year’s rule book.
– The new systems require research work, which was not accomplished with this schedule, Oksanen opens up reform opportunities.
According to him, there are significantly more fraudulent output devices in use in Finland than in many other places in the world.
– We get scams that might go through elsewhere, because we use these devices, Oksanen describes.
Seventh-place finisher Miia Sillman was upset on Twitter about the weekend’s start judgments.
According to Keränen, the fact that measuring tools and equipment from different manufacturers can differ brings its own challenges. It’s challenging when there isn’t just one right way to measure reaction time.
– Let’s measure the power output to the rack, but does it start before or after the shot and what should the stimulus level be like, the sports biomechanics expert ponders.
Human eye versus device
One factor that affects the reaction time is the speakers, from which the sound of the starter gun can be heard. According to Oksanen, they should be more than 10 meters away from the runners, in which case the distance traveled by the sound corresponds to a gunpowder weapon that was once in use.
He says that at the weekend’s World Championships, the two loudspeakers were appropriately 12 meters apart. However, their location may vary at the race locations, as they can be set freely.
In Sunday’s final, Harala’s reaction time was 0.0995 seconds instead of the allowed 0.1. Won the Finnish championship at the weekend Samuli Samuelsson took a stand on false start interpretations on his social media account.
– “Samppa” wrote well that fraud devices were supposed to support the senders’ eye and not completely determine departures, Harala reflects.
Oksanen agrees with the increased role of devices in starting situations.
– Now the rule is black and white, because when the fraud device shows a thief start, it is a thief start. In these extreme cases, the device has too much authority to say how things are, he emphasizes.
Although studies have found that a reaction time faster than 100 milliseconds is possible, according to Oksanen, there is no research on the subject with a sufficiently comprehensive sample so that the generally used reaction time limit could be lowered by the International Association of Athletics Federations.
Athletes need change
Harala says that the interpretation of a stolen start rises to the surface among athletes when situations like the World Championship come up. He naturally hopes for a change in the whole, because the few steals can leave an impact on the athlete’s mind.
– I would be lying if I claimed that this does not affect the starts of the next race in any way. It’s in the back of your mind and you have to work on it. The next competition is important, not to be afraid of this, Harala analysed.
Korttetmaa says that he thought after the weekend, whether in the future he will have to think about whether he dares to react to a blow.
– It shouldn’t be like that, especially on high-speed trips, because all thousandths are significant, he admits his frustration with the situation.
Oksanen tried to hasten a clearer rule change in the International Association of Athletics Federations for situations open to interpretation, where the reaction device shows a poor start.
– In unclear cases, the athlete could have the opportunity, for example, to run under protest, says Oksanen.
He is aware that the limit of 100 milliseconds can be exceeded. The question is, how much? According to an experienced judge, there should be certainty as to where the limit would be set.
As the fastest solution, he would see the reform of the border case rule, which would leave more decision-making power to the judge who decides the situations. The current rule is strongly tied to the reaction time limit, which does not stretch even a millisecond.
– Why would our neuromuscular system be such that that limit would happen to be exactly 100 milliseconds, biomechanics expert Keränen illustrates.