Imperative changes

For quite some time now I have been planning to write a series of articles on the changes that I consider absolutely essential for athletics. It is really bizarre that while other sports do not hesitate to introduce ground-breaking rule modifications, the athletics policy-makers are way too timid and contend themselves with just small, incremental, changes. One excellent example is the question of making a tabula rasa of records. Everybody agrees that our current list of world (and continental) records is tainted by performances registered in the era when doping controls were, if not inexistent, at least inefficient. Still, since erasing records established before any date would have some current record holders protest vehemently (which, by the way, they did) the current attitude is to close eyes and hope that one day all those old records will go away.

Race-walkers or race runners?

One good example of reluctance to introduce changes is that of race-walking. It is clear to everybody that race-walkers are running. However the judges' eyes cannot always catch the violation of the rules. So, instead of deciding to use the help of technology it was decided that what the eye cannot see does not constitute a violation. (And, yes, there has been talk about a chip which could detect irregularities in walking, to be worn in the race-walker shoes, but I will believe it when I see it). 

J. Gray, US record holder, competing in the decathlon

Another great example of a missed opportunity was that of women's decathlon. After having introduced it officially 15 years ago, the IAAF decided to forget about it so as not to displease the current heptathlon champions. Thus we are stuck with a combined event for women which allows athletes to shine without becoming real combined-event specialists. And all this while there is an incessant talk about men-women parity.

Four articles are planned for the "imperative changes" series. They will deal with automatic timing, the women's high-hurdles height, the horizontal jumps take-off board and finally wind measurements.  They will most probably appear in this order but it is not at all clear whether they will be published in succession.