[ad_1]
image source, Getty Images
Greg Rutherford won gold in the long jump for Great Britain at the 2012 London Olympics.
World Athletics is considering introducing a new format for measuring long jump take-offs.
A “take-off zone” is used instead of the traditional wooden board, and if a player’s foot crosses the line, a no-jump is declared.
The jump is measured from where the athlete’s front foot takes off to where it lands in the pit.
“It just adds to the stakes and drama of the competition.”
The purpose of the long jump adaptation is to reduce the amount of no-jumps, and Ridgeon said that at the 2023 World Championships in Budapest, the number of no-jumps will be reduced as athletes overstep in pursuit of the perfect take-off. A third said it was not counted.
“It doesn’t work, it’s a waste of time,” he added. “That’s why we are currently testing the take-off zone rather than the board.
“But at the same time, we’re trying to figure out ways to get instant results and ways to speed things up so that you don’t have to wait 20 to 30 seconds for results to appear.”
The long jump trials were an example used by Ridgeon to demonstrate World Athletics’ purpose of improving the sport and making the process faster and more exciting, especially in field competitions.
“You can’t change a sport that was basically invented 150 years ago without some controversy,” he said.
“If you’ve dedicated your life to hitting the takeoff board perfectly, and then suddenly you translate that to the takeoff zone, we understand that there may be some resistance at first.
“We’re going to spend this year testing it in real-world conditions with some very good athletes. If it doesn’t pass the test, we’ll never introduce it. We’re not going to introduce things on a whim.”
Ridgeon also outlined plans to incorporate annual global events into the athletics calendar in years when there are no World Championships or Olympics, and to bring consistency to the structure of the sport.
The Olympics will be held in Paris in 2024, and the World Championships will be held in Tokyo in 2025.
He added: “Just like there are years when tennis and golf don’t have all the majors. That will never happen, so why don’t we have a world championship that brings a billion people to our sport? Is there a year?” he added.
BBC Sport has contacted World Athletics for comment.
[ad_2]
Source link
