V 14 N. 17 Now They Wanna Remove the Take Off Board, Daddy ? World Champ Calls Idea 'Dog Shit'

 Long Jump May Become Like Wimbeldon   (Or Worse)   Link

The above article by Sean Ingle appeared today in The Guardian.  If you can bear to read it, Sean is relating that World Athletics and Lord Coe in a move to attract viewership is proposing that long jumpers can jump from virtually anywhere and the jump will be measured from where they leave the earth to where they land back on it assuming they land in the pit. And unlike the latest moon lander, it won't matter if they fall one way or the other.   This will attract more viewers?  Sean thinks not, and I concur.  But Sean offers an option.    Turn the event into a knockout, such as playing in a tennis tournament and each jumper is paired with another  after a normal qualifying round to select the final eight or maybe sixteen jumpers.   That would mean a sort of jump off with the eighth best jumping against the  best and the winner moving forward  against the other pairings.  So theoretically a person could set a WR in an early round and not even medal.   I dunno.  This might well increase the betting revenues which seem to be making headway in all TV sport.  Maybe we could also modify the flight area with hot coals or fill it with water and crocodiles  and turn it into one of those game shows that seem to attract a lot of idiots.    Anyway, it all seems to be too much of a radical move for my old bones.  And how are we to compare Bob Beamon with today's heroes?

But wait,  there may be an option with the technology available at most of our fingertips.   Think about going to a live track meet when you are sitting in the stands watching four or five field events scattered around the stadium and racing going on the track.  How much do you catch live?  Unless your grandkids are performing in an event or there is a potential record throw or jump about to take place and a great announcer brings it to your attention, you are going to miss a lot of action.  With all the technology available at our fingertips, a broadcast could give the viewer the option to focus on the event of their choice.  Some techie could put one of those little thingees at the bottom of your screen that you could click on or just touch and it would go to the long jump only or the hammer throw only.   A small  team of 'experts' would be assigned to cover each event separately and you could just dial in live and see what is going on in detail. I don't know where we might assign some of the current announcers, possibly handing out towels in the washroom?   You might have a split screen option where you would also see a running event simultaneously.   Track is a three ring circus, so you are going to miss somethings live.  Playbacks can put you into the whole picture.   And to avoid those  Euro 990 tickets to the Olympics, the Paris heat, and French snobbery if you don't pronounce things properly, you can get the best seat in the house without leaving home.  Door Dash can bring you a nice Beaujolais and croissants and cafe creme to your door.   See you this summer, one way or the other.   George

This comment came from the editors of the blog:   Track is Not Dead, It's Only Sleeping  

 It seems that the attempts by  higher ups in the sport of track and field (Athletics to the uninitiated) are hoping to increase interest  by simplifying the long jump.  They think by removing the take off board  the jumpers would not be charged with an unmeasured jump if they went beyond the board on the take off, because there would not be a board.  Absolutely freaking brilliant.  Thank God for British public schools.    Wouldn't this modification of the rules get you to turn on your set to watch what you have been missing for the last twenty years?  American Idol and The Voice are already considering lodging protests at the Supreme Court.   Sir Billy Bob Hume-Churchill  (S.P.C.  E.X.T.  M.P.A. albeit)

And from Jay Birmingham:

Removing the take off board in LJ and TJ means zero fouls. All the throws would follow: a computer would declare starting and end point. Then crossbar eliminated in HJ and PV.  Hurdlers would soon just pretend to hurdle objects and the computer would judge. 

Read the lyrics to Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. 

“Those evil-natured robots;

They’re programmed to destroy us.”

from Mike Waters,  Corvallis, OR:  I could see this happening    I worked the horizontal jumps at the 16 trials    The lazor overruled the person that was watching the takeoff board.     But as we well know this technical stuff costs money.  Not even some colleges can afford this .

Dr. John Telford

to me

the long jump was my favorite event in high school

	8:51 AM (1 hour ago)

  From: Bill Schnier    

 For every benefit, there is a corresponding liability.  By jumping from wherever you want one would determine the best jump, but by watching those jumps from the stands, one would think the jumper landing farthest into the pit would be the winner, but not necessarily so.  I suggest we leave it as it is and not require every LJ runway in the world to be fitted with high-tech lasers.

In the March 3, 2024  The Guardian:  Quote from new world long jump champion....

" men’s long jump winner Miltiadis Tentoglou attacked World Athletics’ proposals to scrap the wooden take-off board as “dogshit”. “If the rules are applied, I will stop doing long jump,” he added. “Changing it would remove all the skill.”