[Leica] 'Re: LUG Digest, Vol 44, Issue 77

[leicar at q.com (Aram Langhans)]

> From: <tedgrant at shaw.ca>
> Subject: Re: [Leica] EYE BLINK TIME? FALSE START????????????? AFTER
> THE GUN?????????
> To: "Leica Users Group" <lug at leica-users.org>
> Message-ID: <527009943D1543DCB3ADB4934FDC6C25 at syneticfeba505>
> Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
> reply-type=original
>
>>>>>That's exactly what the sprinter was DQ'd for: too many false starts,
>>>>>even
> though he started after the gun each time.<<<<<
>
> That's the first time I've ever heard of that? And given I've covered all
> the Summer Olympics since Mexico in '68  to Barcelona in '92. Along with 
> Pan
> American Games and Commonwealth Games over the same period of time, never
> heard it during any of these international games either.
>
> False starts as in.... "jumping the gun?"  Seen lots of those. But 
> creating
> a "disqualification false start" due to not leaving the blocks when the 
> gun
> goes off?  Very interesting.... must ask one of the Olympic track coach's
> about that one.
>
> cheers,
> ted
>

Hi Ted.  As a former track athlete and coach, this is one very perplexing 
rule.  It has been around for quite some time, including those Olympics that 
you have shot.  Here are a few links:

http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/question702.htm

http://www.condellpark.com/kd/reactiontime.htm

So here is a rumor I heard.  It all started back in Munich in 72.   Before 
then, few Americans had lost the 100 meters at the Olympics for a very, very 
long time.  Valery Borzov, through some miscommunication by the American 
coach, and more likely that he was just a tremendous sprinter with great 
reaction times and a very good anticipator, won both the 100 and 200.  The 
rumor is that the Americans were so upset that they wanted the playing field 
leveled, so they started the move to remove anticipation from the equation 
of starting.  They wanted to hold sprinters back until they could react to 
the gun, not anticipate it.  My own idea is that anticipation is part of 
being a good athlete.  I only remember one or two times I was ever beaten 
out of the blocks when I was running in High school and college.  Not to say 
I was first at the end of the race, but to that first hurdle I was only 
beaten maybe once or twice.

Of course, this is only rumor and I  have no factual information to back it 
up.

So, the anticipation of 0.10 seconds has been wired into starting blocks for 
decades, I believe.  It use to be that you were not DQ'd for a violation of 
the 0.10 second rule, and the race was just restarted, but I guess in 2003 
that changed.  Now this year they have changed again so you can be DQ'd 
after the first "false start".  No more one for free.

Aram