Yes, it's a complete joke. When you stop having a race directly between individuals and instead make it a time trial, you lose the concept of a race entirely.
I don't think you lose the concept of a race entirely, but you do change it into a different kind of race and it's foolish to pretend that you don't.
I watched the cycling time trial at the Paris Olympics and it was a lot of fun. I think it would be interesting to run a road race this way and I'd like to see it (marathon might be too brutal, but a 10k could work).
I don't see it working for 400m, however.
As someone who was an A-A sprinter and someone who is also 6'5", I always knew that lanes 1-2 would crush me if I ever drew them. So what did I do? Prelims, semis, whatever, it meant that I expended any amount of energy I could to win my heat.
Line up and race. Split finals are dumb. Maaaaaaybe I can get behind it for the 4x4 because now you're just ramping up the craziness at the handoff but for the open? Nah.
Sprints and field are so lame. 400m with a break is the only true head to head competition in the sprints!
If you are in a laned race or field event you are basically time trialing or doing a routine like gymnastics. No one can bother you, you get your own space, you get to do your own thing completely separate from the competition. The only “competition” is o that person went out fast.
Let’s let everyone run one at a time in their preferred lane!!!
hope u are being sarcastic and just trying to be funny with this silly post.
Maybe some NCAA athletes prefer, but I've yet to see an elite pro support it. In fact, Olympic & World medalist Natalya Bukowiecka recently spoke out in opposition. World 400mh bronze medalist Emma Zapletalova also said she didn't like it. World U20 Champion Lurdes Gloria Manuel has said she doesn't like it. 2026 Spanish Champion Markel Fernández Soto doesn't like it, as did his compatriot Blanca Hervas.
Meuwly used the recent US results as a good example of why this is naff: If I look at today’s results in US: winner in final 2, second is in final 1, 3rd in final 2 and 4th in final 1. Stupid!
As someone who was an A-A sprinter and someone who is also 6'5", I always knew that lanes 1-2 would crush me if I ever drew them. So what did I do? Prelims, semis, whatever, it meant that I expended any amount of energy I could to win my heat.
Line up and race. Split finals are dumb. Maaaaaaybe I can get behind it for the 4x4 because now you're just ramping up the craziness at the handoff but for the open? Nah.
The issue is everyone in the field could approach the competition the way you did, and there would still be two athletes who'd wind up with the dreaded inside lanes in a six-person final.
When their research determined it was unfair to have 400m runners in lanes 1 and 2 for indoor races, World Athletics was left with three imperfect options for holding that event moving forward:
Option A: Continue as they had been, despite their newly obtained knowledge that the competition is unfair for 33% of the finalists
Option B: Advance only four athletes to the final
Option C: Run a split final
Or just scrap the event altogether like they did with the indoor 200m.
None of those options are great. Option A is hard to justify if fair competition is a high priority. Option B lacks appeal because having only four people in a final doesn't seem exciting. Option C is problematic for the reasons already stated by others in this thread.
I would have gone with Option B, but I understand the logic behind Option C. They want to give more athletes a chance of winning a medal while keeping the competition as fair as possible. I can accept that.
If WA are concerned re the fairness of being assigned lanes 1 -3, the alternative is to have two finals, but an A and B final, where the A final you fight for gold, silver and bronze, and B final you fight for places 4, 5 & 6 (still worth it for prize money)
To Q for the A final you need to finish first in your SF or are the fastest of the second placed athletes in the SF's.
I feel this is a good compromise.
And if the fastest time comes from the B final, there will be people complaining about that.
I think I just have a problem with the indoor 400 in general. So often seems like a race to be in the lead after one lap. Maybe they should stay in lanes the entire race?
I think I just have a problem with the indoor 400 in general. So often seems like a race to be in the lead after one lap. Maybe they should stay in lanes the entire race?
This would mean the athletes with the built-in advantage (those in the outside lanes) would have the advantage the entire race instead of half the race, giving them even more of an advantage.
Option B is the fairest on the track but it would be hard to justify calling it a "World" competition with only 4 athletes racing for the medals. It would also mean every athlete in the final would medal except for the 4th placer. Not a good look for WA. None of the options are ideal. They all have serious pros and cons.
Option B is the fairest on the track but it would be hard to justify calling it a "World" competition with only 4 athletes racing for the medals. It would also mean every athlete in the final would medal except for the 4th placer. Not a good look for WA. None of the options are ideal. They all have serious pros and cons.
I don't know what's wrong with that. Only two people advance to the finals of Grand Slam tennis tournaments.
Bureaucrats take great joy in fiddling around with stuff. Whether it works or not is irrelevant they joy is already achieved by the imposition of the new order.
The stupid rule will be got rid of like all the other stupid rules. Like the moron who came up with the "only the last 3 throws count in the field events".
A simple consult of fans and runners would have deemed this fin stupid!
I can't help but thinking that the reason Femke Bol's coach is making the stink is because Lieke Klaver who he's coaching is so prone to blowing her pacing, and he doesn't like the idea of her getting beaten out by B heat runners who don't screw that up or have to go wide to pass her (when she goes out too fast).
I was thinking the same thing. Klaver with the large frame and some intimidation factor is a lot more likely to get the lead and win a head to head race than to have the fastest time among 2 heats.
Heck, it already happened last year. Klaver had the superior lane at European indoors and managed to hold off Henriette Jaeger in the final by .07. It was Klaver's only head to head win over Jaeger all year. Outdoors Jaeger finished ahead of Klaver in all 5 meetings.
This past weekend at Dutch indoor championships Klaver similarly held off Myrte van der Schoot in the final by .05 as van der Schoot set a big new personal best and met the world indoors standard. It looked like van der Schoot might have been able to win that race other than a brief hesitant step when she seemed to think she wasn't supposed to blow past Klaver on the outside.
Overall I prefer the split races at both 400 and 200. In attending NCAA conference and national meets the past few years you get some surprising results. Nobody thought Bella Whitaker would run 49.24 from the first heat last year. And this past weekend at Big 10 indoors there were several Indiana fans and teammates who were loudly crowing near the finish line when their guy ran 20.37 to take the first 200 heat easily. USC's Garrett Kaalund seemed to embrace the challenge. He flew down the stretch for 20.06 and the third fastest time ever.
I was thinking the same thing. Klaver with the large frame and some intimidation factor is a lot more likely to get the lead and win a head to head race than to have the fastest time among 2 heats.
Heck, it already happened last year. Klaver had the superior lane at European indoors and managed to hold off Henriette Jaeger in the final by .07. It was Klaver's only head to head win over Jaeger all year. Outdoors Jaeger finished ahead of Klaver in all 5 meetings.
This past weekend at Dutch indoor championships Klaver similarly held off Myrte van der Schoot in the final by .05 as van der Schoot set a big new personal best and met the world indoors standard. It looked like van der Schoot might have been able to win that race other than a brief hesitant step when she seemed to think she wasn't supposed to blow past Klaver on the outside.
Overall I prefer the split races at both 400 and 200. In attending NCAA conference and national meets the past few years you get some surprising results. Nobody thought Bella Whitaker would run 49.24 from the first heat last year. And this past weekend at Big 10 indoors there were several Indiana fans and teammates who were loudly crowing near the finish line when their guy ran 20.37 to take the first 200 heat easily. USC's Garrett Kaalund seemed to embrace the challenge. He flew down the stretch for 20.06 and the third fastest time ever.
Yeah we’re on the same page completely. I think this is one of those topics where reasonable people can disagree. I think it’d be crazy to say one POV on this totally incorrect.
This post was edited 13 seconds after it was posted.
Yes, it's a complete joke. When you stop having a race directly between individuals and instead make it a time trial, you lose the concept of a race entirely.
A "race"... it's a 400m, everyone is going all out anyways. It's already a time trial. I don't buy this logic, but at the same time, I like a 6 person, one heat final. Put the slower qualifiers in lane 1 and 2.
He clearly doesn't know what he's talking about if he thinks that 6 runners on the track during a indoor 400m is something "nobody wants". Sorry, but I want the races to be fair.
Just because someone is coaching successful athletes doesn't mean they're a good coach and it certainly doesn't mean their opinion on the indoor 400m is valid. This dude needs to take a step back, anyone on the planet could coach Femke to her Mickey Mouse titles.
You see, when posters write stuff like "This dude needs to take a step back, anyone on the planet could coach Femke to her Mickey Mouse titles." they show themselves for what they truly are, and one cannot take their posts seriously again.
Falling a bit short on reading comprehension. I just told you of an elite pro, who literally set to be a world record holder, prefers it in Khaleb McRae.
There is no perfect solution here, but did we just watch a bunch of speedskating in the Olympics where basically they run 2 a heat and anyone can win it's all done on time. Now I prefer racing to that, but I'll take McRae's word on lanes 1/2 being basically more just a chaos agent than actually contributing to a good race on an indoor track.
I can't help but thinking that the reason Femke Bol's coach is making the stink is because Lieke Klaver who he's coaching is so prone to blowing her pacing, and he doesn't like the idea of her getting beaten out by B heat runners who don't screw that up or have to go wide to pass her (when she goes out too fast).
...an elite pro that was an NCCA athlete. My point was those elite athletes that haven't been through that system have spoken out against it.
No need to be unnecessarily rude, we can all play nice.