Was it actually Bolt who made the first move?
A massive shock, Usain Bolt false-started. But was it really him who made the first move? All-Athletics.com owner, Attila Spiriev, does not think so.
Of course the machine does not lie. Bolt was the first one who pushed the starting-blocks and it was way too early.
According to the rules his disqualification was most likely a correct decision. But was it?
Watch the replay very carefully.
- Bolt in lane 5, Blake in lane 6.
- "Set!"
- And then (in this video at about 0:15-0:16) Yohan Blake makes a very, very small body move.
It was hardly visible.
But in a 100m world championship final, in a "set" position the sprinters can hear and feel things they don't even knowingly realize.
Was Bolt's false start a reaction to Blake's very small body-move? We think it was. God only knows the correct answer.
But the move was there!
I think there is a flaw in the false start rule as it stands. If Blake did set off Bolt I think we'd agree that Blake was not attempting a false start. An involuntary twitch is a natural human reaction when waiting for a stimulous. Same goes for Chambers. I am a timekeeper of many years experience yet on Saturday at an athletic meeting, when watching the starter's pistol and waiting for it to fire, my finger involuntarily twitched and I nearly started my watch early. I obviously wasn't trying to achieve a 'flyer'.
A better rule would be:
One false start and the field gets a warning.
Second false start and the athlete causing it is dq'd plus the original perpetrator.
Any subsequent false starts and the athlete is immediately dq'd.
It's still tough and could result in an involuntary twitcher being dq'd but it gives the field the chance to overcome a first anomally. It should deter the athlete who deliberately twitches to upset the field (as they sometimes did with the previous version of the rule).
What's to protest? He was a full quarter of a second faster out of the blocks than the next fastest sprinter and a full tenth of a second faster than the gun.
He screwed up--we all do from time to time but most of us don't do it in such an obvious fashion on world TV. Oh well...
...and he acted like a consummate sportsman in the moment: demonstrated immediately that he knew he'd jumped, and took the acting-out of his frustrations off the track so as not to impede the competition.
Bolt did not protest the call. And that is no small thing.
The technology can only be consistent, not necessarily more accurate. If we want it to be decisive then the results will be what the technology dictates