I went to the youtube videos and timed the starter and Bolt. For the starter, I have 1.69 after set for the semi and 1.68 for the final. Very consistent, which allows one to guess the gun. For Bolt in the final I saw movement at 1.56. On careful analysis, it looks like he was trying to time the starter, and just barely missed it.
Maybe he “blew his wad in the prelims” as Charlie once said about Asafa and really didn’t have it. So if you guess right, great; Otherwise FS gives a excuse rather than a loss to Blake? The loss in appearance money for losing could have been sizeable.
Truly a disappointing spectacle, but such is track and life. Sometimes things go right sometimes they don’t. It’s just weird how we get these gaps like in 2003, and now again. What a boring final.
Haha, Asafa must now be crying that he got “injured” (he’s only injured in the head IMO) when he shit his pants yet again before a major competition.
Overall I’m just sick of everybody avoiding everybody during the season, it’s a sad show sprinting has become.
I agree, it’s sad to see Bolt can’t be a champion losing too, not good for the sport at all. His antics after the DQ were really immature. Grow up Usain.
This rule has now been in effect at the highest level for well over 3 years. It was relatively smooth sailing for the first few years and now we have had one of the first big casualties.
The rule is fine. Maybe we need to be thinking isn’t this great that another competitor had Bolt thinking he needed to get out fast.
It simply shows that you can’t just turn up to a major with doubts. It has happen to a number of athletes already Obuguru, Hooker and now Bolt. Maybe this is just the kick of the butt these athletes required…so rather than harping on Bolt what about yohan’s 9.93 into that wind!!! Now thats impressive. Turn that wind around and we may have been looking at 9.6s!
Now that indicates just what shape he turned up in!!
I, too, was impressed with that time run into that strong of a headwind. Many fans only see the time but when you consider the conditions, that’s an excellent performance.
The new rule was applied in January 2010. This is the first major championships (unless you want to count Commonwealth Games) at which the new rule was applied, and after two days of competition three high-profile athletes have already been DQ’ed.
Yup… I agree. Something is not right. I’ll say this though Usain needs to get some acting lessons. I mean if your going to act devastated at least make it believable… I dont really think he wanted to be there. I dont think any of the top guys wanted to go IMHO… And WTF false starts in a marathon too? Ridiculous…
My initial reaction after watching was one of extreme disappointment. Instantly I thought, “Damn the current false start rule.” But as I’ve thought about it over the day, it is the current rule and has been for a a little while now. In sports, a rule is a rule. This is not a subjective matter either: You’re out if you move before the gun goes off. The winner of the race is the guy who gets to the line first, provided that he starts at some point after the gun. That’s that. This isn’t like American Football where there are various degrees of pass interference, holding, and unnecessary roughness. This is cut and dry. While it’s extremely unfortunate that the fastest human in the world’s history did not race, he did get a chance, and he himself messed that up. I am not happy that Bolt got DQ’d; I feel for any athlete who has put in the time and work to be at the top of their game. But I am happy to see that the officials of track and field gave no special treatment to an athlete – even one who is the fastest man in the world. While some may say that this is a low point for the sport, I’ve found the silver lining (at least for myself) in that the rules of competition were put ahead of an individual. If the fallout of today’s event results in a change in the rule, I fear that one could interpret it as an athlete being put ahead of the sport. Today’s 100m final was not created simply for Usain Bolt; it was created to pit the world’s 8 fastest men against each other in a race. Bolt qualified and therefore had a chance to win. He false started and was disqualified on a clear-cut rule. The men lined up again. Yohan Blake won the race and is the 2011 World Champion in the 100m.
I don’t know if I never payed attention to this before and some sprinters have always been doing it, but it really caught my attention how far up to blocks Blake placed his feet, like an inch and a half or two inches above the ground. I believe I also noticed another sprinter placing his feet this far up, or maybe it was him in the heats. Is this recommendable at all? I assume the goal is to create and even deeper initial angle … but I’d be scared of the blocks flying out of place, even more with an athlete with Blake’s mass and strength.
Ato Bolden predicted something like this needing to happen in order to serve as a catalyst to get the rule tossed.
As soon as the rule went into action last year I thought it was a joke. Of all reasons to be disqualified from a competition the powers that be decide to direct their focus to what amounts to a tactical error. What’s next:will NFL players be kicked out of a game for jumping off-sides, will MLB players be kicked out of a game for getting caught base steeling… it’s completely absurd.
I state this because more than one source has stated that the reason the rule was created in the first place was to relieve big television from the apparent “agony” of waiting for the field to reset after a false start and lengthening the air time.
As I stated in another thread regarding Ohuruogu, it’s ridiculous to jump on a race that is not decided by the start. The 100m, on the other hand, very well may be and the start plays a decidedly significant factor in the race outcome. In any case, I sure hope the rule gets tossed for all events.
This is pretty interesting. The first video isn’t clear, and the guy rambles on much too long. Watch the second video to see the apparent flinch by Blake. It happens 15 seconds into the video.
The 2nd video in that link is much clearer. Agreed this is an interesting development. Had Bolt raced under protest perhaps this video could have vindicated him. Bolt did not claim he was reacting to a flinch by Blake, and perhaps that is the reason he did not ask to run.
Bolt may just have reacted unconsciously (sub-consciously?) to the Blake Shake or to a noise in the crowd because the Koreans don’t shut up like more educated track crowds before a start.
I hate the no-break rule. It’s a disaster for everyone. Now it’s also a disaster for TV. Its those bastards who forced this time-expedient rule into being. Now they killed the goose who laid the golden egg. Rules should be sensible and should be for the greater benefit. This rule stinks. I preferred the one-break and a caution to the field approach in plaxce prior to last year. It wasn’t perfect but it allowed a nerve settler. These guys and girls are on a hair-trigger. Give them a break!
How about people who still think it was staged? For sure you’ll find another reason. Blake should have been disqualified but simply officials didn’t notice that flinch and I don’t blame them b/c they are not computers. Sorry but Blake is not a real champion
But in both of those cases the player/team is penalized (5 yards or an out, respectively). How do you penalize a track start? Move the start line back one or two meters per false start?
Without a penalty the multiple false start rule is a no-lose scenario to take a guess at the gun, guess correctly and you get a great start or get caught and run again against concentration shaken athletes.
