When was the last time a WTS / WC had a false start?
Jodie Stimpson had one in the penultimate race this season in Stockholm. It was her first race back after a while, said she was nervous and jumped the gun by half a second or so; received a 15 second stop-and-go penalty in T1.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/triathlon/41059979
I seem to recall something about Henri Schoeman in that same race, maybe he did the same thing, or came close to a penalty and got away with it?
Ahh right, thanks. I don’t watch ITU anywhere near as much as I used to. Watching Superleague today on Youtube, couldn’t help but notice how much cleaner the start area looked without TO’s and their flags etc. Made me wonder just how necessary they are at the start. They do serve a purpose, but with ITU they’re very much ‘front & center’.
I think at wts level they id false starts by video now. But I think it adds to the whole procedure and “legitâ€. And it’s the 1 time fans/athletes get to give the officials the applause/appreciation.
I find the starters at ITU hit the horn super quick after they call take your mark vs a swim start where they wait for all to be motionless. Just makes it harder to spot a false start with all those in motion.
In 2013 Madrid (I think) a false start changed the whole race. The women (Stkmpson maybe) came out with the lead pack of women. Because she had to serve the penalty after the swim the lead pack was one women short.
And the same race had a false start for the men too, I think.
As it is now a false start is an IQ test. As AB pointed out the horn goes off so quickly it doesn’t seem possible to false start…
but it s more effective to ‘‘prevent’’ falls start vs only 8 swimmers on the block. you just cant afford false start in triathlon as you cant call anyone back. So better not give them the time to false start
Swimming doesn’t call back false starts anymore. You just find out you’ve been deked after the race, which really sucks!
very true! that would be brutal at the end of a 1500m!!!
but i think in swimming, a FAIR start is more important than triathlon as the race is play by such small margin.
in triathlon…as long as everyone start ‘‘around’’ the same time… the dynamic is different, winner isnt decided at the end of the swim!
In itu they do have procedures that account for a percentage of the field false starting versus 1-2 random people starting too soon and actually restarting the whole race again. They’ll simply have the support boats “collapse” on the swim and block the swim course and reset. But as you said, it’s much easier to simply “quick start” them so it never really has to happen that way.
question!
when is the last time you saw a WTS race stop for false start? or any other itu?
i do beleive it happen in montreal or toronto…but that was very ugly scene to see boat trying to get in the way without hurting anyone. It was perhaps 10 years ago! but i havent follow closely enough to see if it ever happen again
WTS level…I don’t think I’ve ever seen more than a few actually false start at race. I have seen it at a lower level event, but it was more a malfunction of the pontoon collapsing, and half the people just waited/assumed the race would re-start.
eta: But it’s a real pain in the ass, and likely would delay race by 5-7 mins, so it’s why they quick start them so quickly.
It happened at USport/CIS in the womens 800 Free… Savannah King would have won 5 in a row.