That is the 4th column for Elliott Denman in Budapest 2023, and he’s stirring it up!
SLAM THAT Q-ROOM DOOR.SAY GOODBYE TO TIME QUALIFYING.
By ELLIOTT DENMAN
Shut that Q-Room door.
Slam it shut.
And lock it tight, by no means once more to be utilized at a serious championship meet.
Properly, besides – possibly simply possibly – for last-minute calls of nature, ice-water storage, or first-aid exigencies.
Each day NBC. CNBC, USA Community, and Peacock programming have proven scene after scene after scene of athletes sprawled throughout that couch “on the bubble” – inform me, who has ever sat on a “bubble” with out it collapsing beneath its personal impossibility? – and each time they do it, I squirm. These scenes are worthy solely of a goshawful cleaning soap opera.
Typically, I even scream at Leigh Diffey, Ato Boldon, Kara Goucher, Lewis Johnson & Co. to only assume this one out. And talk about.
People, we remind you that that is the period of the cutting-edge stadium and the nine-lane observe.
At its highest ranges on this sport, the good-old eight-lane observe is historical historical past.
9-lane tracks are “de rigor,” and their outer eight are the lanes now mandated for nearly every little thing.
So why-oh-why-oh-why-h do they make such a fuss about “time qualifying” – and people Q-Room visitations – for opening-round, pre-semifinal, and pre-championship-round racing?
Why do they mandate eight-runner finals for the 100-meter sprint, 200, 400, 800, 100 and 110-meter excessive hurdles, and 400-meter hurdles? Oh, and sure, the 4×100 and 4×400 relays.
Eight-lane finals are nice. It’s actually good news that this “flagship sport of the Olympic Video games” is producing robust scores from all who measure these numbers.
And why not?
We’ve been seeing some actually riveting stuff out of Budapest from Day One onward..
Blazing pace. Good techniques. A number of favorites dwell as much as their press clippings. And a heap of type chart-wreckers, too.
Like it, adore it, adore it; it’s the entire essence of the world’s
surely-most-popular-and-surely-most-basic particular person athletic exercise.
However have a look at the plain.
If eight is nice, 9 is finer.
For all races as much as 400, crowding or jostling is clearly no downside. Keep on with your individual designated pathway. OK, lane-one runners should deal with sharper curves. So put the ninth seeds there. OK, there is perhaps a tad extra jostling in a nine-runner 800, however isn’t that what international superstars are skilled to cope with. 9-runner 800s? Why not?
(Means–out-there division: Reserve that ninth lane for the hugely-hugely rare-rare risk of a qualifying-round tie all the way down to the thousandth of a second? Response – inform the sensible timekeeping technicians: Not adequate. Give us outcomes all the way down to the ten-thousandth of a second.)
Some days in the past, I famous an internet site piece telling us that World Athletics – the game’s final authority – was performing “to fill vacant lanes.”
It turned out the modifications had been solely referenced to 1500, 3000 (steeplechase), and 5000 races – the place beforehand designated time qualifiers had been out and computerized place-winners had been assured in.
I’d like to see highway race-sized 100s, for instance. Hey, World Athletics, how about staging a 50-runner dash? How? Down the center of some soccer area, that’s how.
It isn’t going to occur, in fact. Besides in some meet – someplace – staged by some mad sports activities scientist/sensible innovator.
So we’ll accept nine-runner races on the tracks of the majors simply forward. And shortly higher than later.
Once more, the primary two-place qualifiers out of three-round occasions, then the subsequent two qualifying on time?
No-no-no-no-no. Why-oh-why-oh-why-oh?
Make it the primary three computerized qualifiers, and no Q-Room. Completely arithmetical, completely easy, completely apparent.
I may conjure up a variety of different modern issues to make this sport extra with-it. Hey, Lord Coe, let’s sit down and chat. My folks can discuss to your folks to work out the preparations.
Anytime at your comfort.
