DEVON ALLEN ROBBBED. .09999?

The average reaction time from these Champs is lower than every other I've seen. I strongly believe he was robbed. He went 0.101 in the semi's and he's always had faster than everyone else reaations.

Sarcasm, yes. Relevant to reaction times, no.

Well, we still have a lot more races with starting blocks to go. Let's see if this happens in more races than just the 100 races.

Exactly. If they were anticipating the gun all these alleged “false starts” wouldn’t be in the 0.09x range. Some people can clearly react in a bit less than 0.1 and are being penalized for being “too fast” in races that are all about speed. It’s definitely a joke and the rule needs to be changed.

They definitely need to overhaul their disqualification process. Ridiculous. Saying all humans cannot possibly react faster than 0.10 seconds is nonsense, especially for a highly trained athlete.

Each lane has a speaker directly behind it broadcasting the sound of the gun

100% it's a timing mat issue. everybody is about .02 or so faster than normal.

total clown show.

imagine when they come out and admit there was a timing mat problem

this is going to turn into something bigger than it is right now, that's for sure

If you can’t visually see the false start then it shouldn’t be a false start.

For this to happen, World Athletics would actually have to admit they did something wrong. Probs not happening, sadly.

I disagree. Devon Allen had the fastest RT in the Tokyo Olympics semi-final, with 0.121, which was 25.5 thousandths faster than the semi-final average of 146.5 (standard deviation 14.4).

In Eugene, Devon Allen had the fastest RT in the semi-final, with 0.101, which was 29 thousandths faster than the semi-final average of 130.3 (standard deviation 12.7).

The calibration of reaction timing is simply different.

worldathletics.org

The XXXII Olympic Games (Athletics) | World Athletics

Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 - Athletics news, schedule and results from World Athletics

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Agreed - everyone is talking about Allen but he was the last in a string of supposed false starts in events on the straightaway, and all the while everyone else is registering reaction times dangerously close to the limit. I've never really seen the 0.10s reaction time rule be a problem, it generally works because people genuinely don't react that fast to the gun most of the time. In this case, the rule ruined things, but the results definitely suggest machine error was the main error.

If the DQ'd athletes had been allowed to run under protest, then there would be a remedy to this. Instead it is just a tragedy, so clearly something must change. But the fact that a significant amount of posters in this thread were unaware this was even a rule goes to show that it is not generally problematic and the meet organizers were clearly responsible for some deeper mess up here.

I agree. I just went and looked at reaction times and false start reaction times for the past 4 world champs and it is very very obvious something is wrong.

World Athletics sht the bed in a way that can't be cleaned up.

Devon Allen (.099) and Julien Alfred (.095) both had a legit shot at medaling. Gaither (.093) and Tabakaucoro (.096) weren't going to medal, but every result in every round at a global event like this is huge for sponsorship that is critical getting through the season.

Imagine being from Fiji and you make it to the World Champs in the 100m! Then there is a timing error that officials don't yet realize and you get DQd because of it.

The much bigger problem is on the goal line. We need to get rid of the photo-finish camera. If super slow-mo can't tell the difference between two runners, why not call it a tie?

The rules are quite clear. Any change to the 0.10 reaction rule cannot happen at the competition. It would have looked very bad if Allen had been allowed to run after girls also were out for breaking.

Step two: Sure, and let's add the centimeters that LJ/TJ take off behind the board, and let's add the centimeters by which HJ/PV cleanly clear the bar. Cripes, doesn't anyone on the World Famous Message Board read the starting rules?

Your link even states that "unconcious" reaction times are 0.08 sec. It seems possible that someone could train this type of reaction to be unconcious muscle memory. This seems to be supported by the study conducted by IAAF in 2009 which showed that among n = 7 elite sprinters, reaction times were as small as 0.08. If we add the time it takes for the sound getting to lane 1, maybe we are at 0.085 - 0.09 sec max. Of course couch potatos have reaction times of 0.22 and healthy med students 0.20, but these are elite athletes that train their reaction every day.

My general opinion is cut it in half 0.05, I'm fine with someone with super human reaction getting a 0.03 head start on the field. If someone wants to guess when the gun will go off within 0.03 secs and risk a false start, more power to them. They'll usually get it wrong and be run down by the faster guy/gal anyways.

Nobody seems to be considering that maybe God or Jesus just doesn't love Devon
Allen anymore, since he is now going to play for one of the NFL teams that God and Jesus are not fans of.

Philadelphia is a city of heathens and blasphemers.

When he did not cross himself getting into the blocks, it was clear it was all over.

His feet pushed off marginally ahead of the others and that's where the sensors are.

It's an easy fix though - if it's between 0.95-0.10 or between 0.9-0.10 - give them a warning.

The IAAF has known 0.08 is the tiem supported by the study they commissioned for 13 years! Yes one of the women should have been allowed to run as well.