Fair or foul: WaveLight to be used at European Indoors.

What? I thought championship races never had wavelight.

First time for everything…

I'm 100% against Wavelight at championships.

What pace are they setting it at?

They usually don’t post the pacing plan until day of diamond leagues so we’ll see.

I am fascinated if this is gonna be treated the same way they do diamond leagues where there’s a really fast pace or if it’s something different.

are you certain that there are wavelights, or saying it tongue in cheek, or you are not sure if there are wavelights and are asking? appreciate the source if you know there are wavelights.

wavelights in a championship are definitely a first (and I do think it may take away the competitive "championship style" racing element of Euro Indoors

I guess we’ll just have to wait until Thursday to verify it’s true;)

It’s the authentic WaveLights not the rubbish that ate itself at the last BU meet

This year’s European Indoor Championships is set to be one of the most innovative yet.
Among the new features is the introduction of wavelight technology—an LED pacing system
designed to enhance races. Initially approved for entertainment purposes only, the team
successfully lobbied for its use in competition. “We’re the first championship to
use wavelight in a competitive setting,” Van der Lugt notes. “European
Athletics approved its use, and now it’s set to be a game-changer.”

1:44 thru 800

If runners can ignore Tom Byers, they can certainly ignore idiotic flashing lights.

Damnit… had big hopes for my thread.
now it’s in the pooper.

Jakob sucks, he can only win with wavelights in global 1500m championships. If they introduce this to outdoor world championships, the sport is dead. He probably will still lose to everyones kicks

That’s awesome. I’m curious what they’ll be set to…championship record?

I don’t give a crap about swimming, but following the line during Olympics coverage is a big help.

Or if they let Jakob choose the pace…even better. Lap someone in an unpaced 3k?

Aligned, and I thought this was an April Fool's type joke. For sprints/relays, I'll say it's fine. There's some excitement in watching if they beat a wavelight set to the ER or CR let's say. For distance racing, it takes out a key element of competition which is the pace setter's strength in setting the right pace and saving enough up. And it becomes a distraction if they're way off it. Perhaps they'll turn it off in that case. But now how much easier did Jakob's job get if he can set the wavelight to 30s a lap in that 3K and then just follow the lights for 12 laps before dropping a 29-28-27 finish.

Some thoughts.

1) I'm absolutely stunned at this - I agree, this is not a good thing

2) It's even more concerning because if European Athletics has signed off on it (clearly they had to) it's only a matter of time before this precedent makes it's way to the outdoor championships and then the next step is well, we all know.

3) The practicalities of this don't make sense to me. Are they using wavelight in heats or just finals? So are the heat paces slower than the finals? An even bigger question is who is deciding what these paces are? Surely this has to be somewhat democratic right? Does the entire field have a pre-race briefing and nut out the pace everyone is happy with? What about the final - does the top qualifier from the heats get that privilege?

The worst thing about this is that now we are trending towards eliminating the athletes who maybe aren't the time-trial threshold monsters, but maybe have more acumen when it comes to the art of racing. This is utter BS because when you don't have wavelight, it doesn't negatively impact those more "time-trail'esque" athletes - they still have the ability to run from the front and exercise their unique advantages. With wavelight if these guys get the jump on the field in the opening 50m, it gives them an advantage that doesn't exist without it.

I can't believe that this went to a committee and it was approved. What I hope we see in some finals are guys getting out ahead of fields, slowing down and disrupting races enough so the lights simply get away and are rendered useless. That's also part of racing so why not. This is just a needless and pointless "innovation" just for the sake of doing something differently which isn't innovative at all.

And that's all I got to say about that.

Yeah of course the big difference in swimming is that your little line isn't actually seen by any of the swimmers - it's a purely broadcast visual - the same as your "unofficial" first down line in the NFL (you know that's not on the field right?). So it is of zero benefit to swimmers even if dead-even pacing was a thing in that sport.

Question - why is Jakob allowed to set the pace? Seriously, why would he be the guy that just get's that privilege automatically. What if he wasn't even the top time qualifier from the heats?

If it’s just wave lights, Ingebrigtsen won’t take a single step where he benifits from drafting, and the guy behind him won’t have a single step where he isn’t.

I'm against this, but let's be real about the competition at euros. Jakob would win this race in 7:20 or 8:30 if he wants to, and it won't be particularly close.

is the order of events 1500 rounds, 3000 final, 1500 final?

I would think the only race he'd want to tune it up for is the 1500 final.

HATE the idea of wavelights or any pacing aid at a championship race. That goes against the entire point of championship racing!

Did Jakob and the Norwegian federation push for this? Seb Coe and World Athletics should step in and put their foot down, this cannot be allowed