The final three rigmarole is over

I have already commented on the unfair, counterproductive and plain stupid rule of final 3 that was introduced in the Diamond League competitions two years ago, supposedly in order to make the competitions more exciting.

The final 3 rule meant that after five rounds only the leading three horizontal jumpers or throwers would get a sixth attempt, with the athlete who was best in that final round being proclaimed the winner, even if his performance did not exceed ones set earlier in the competition. 

One cannot think of anything stupider than this, short of deciding the winner by drawing lots. Quite expectedly the vast majority of athletes was against that rule. Still World Athletics persisted and applied this crazy rule to all the 2020 and 2021 Diamond League meetings. Fortunately they refrained from pushing for this rule to apply to the Olympics. As for the World Championships, luckily they were postponed, due to the epidemic.

The official justification was that it would make the events more attractive. Poppycock!

After the outcry (both from athletes and the public) World Athletics decided to review the situation. Here are the official rules for the new format.

Rounds 1-3

Each competition with a ‘final 3’ element is seeded ahead of the event commencing. The best throwers/jumpers are seeded to perform at the start of each round.

After round 3

The order of the eight remaining athletes is re-drawn with the best performing athletes throwing/jumping at the start of the next two rounds (rounds 4 and 5).

After round 5

The top three athletes get one additional attempt each. The order of the three remaining athletes is redrawn so that the best-placed athlete after round five goes first in the ‘final 3’, the second-placed athlete after round five goes second, and the third-placed athlete after round five goes third.

It is estimated that there will be a two-minute break from the end of round five to the start of the final 3.

Any ‘live’ field and track events will be stopped for the duration of a ‘final 3’ competition. 

To put it in a nutshell, only the first three will be allowed a 6th attempt and the best athlete will go first instead of last, which was the standard practice till now. And in the end the winner will be the one with the best performance during the whole event.  

Which means, more or less, that we are back to what was the standard before, with a few token changes for the World Athletics hierarchy not to lose face. 

Still, sports historians, perusing old results, will have trouble (unless they know precisely what was happening) to understand how an athlete with 8.09 m was first and one with 8.13 m was second.