Tanya Lee | Nobody wins when nobody wins

So the World Indoor Championships are behind us, and, for me, it was forgettable and highly lacking in viewer appeal. The staggering 27 disqualifications overall at the Championships only exacerbated this.

First, congrats are in order for Danielle Thomas-Dodd, who won silver for Jamaica with a national indoor record throw of 19.22 metres. Thomas-Dodd created history by becoming the first Jamaican woman to win a global medal in a throwing event. It's a great precursor to the rest of her season. Congrats also to triple jumper Kimberly Williams, who also won silver in her event in a personal best of 14.48m.

Second, I note that Jamaica is sixth on the World Indoors all-time list with a total 51 medals since 1985, which is impressive compared to our 76 medals amassed in the Summer Olympic Games, which we've been participating in since 1948.

However, outside of watching the 60m and the throws, I tuned in only occasionally to the World Indoor Championships. Here is where I will confess that I am not the biggest fan of the indoor season. It has never held any special relevance in my viewing calendar as it is, for me, at a level well below the pedigree of outdoor athletics.

For me, therefore, the unprecedented 27 disqualifications that athletes faced at the Championships will only push me further away from the indoor season. If the IAAF is seeking to build on the track and field audience, especially in the post-Bolt era, the new changes to the indoor rules, the overly zealous officiating and the absurd video referee system may not be the way to do it.

Disqualifications and sketchy results only serve to drive eyes away from the sport. The disqualification of all the athletes in the men's 400m event was, to put it mildly, bizarre. You know you've created a poor viewing event when the organisers themselves are creating the records. It's the first time in history that every single runner in a world championship race was being disqualified.

400m INDOOR DISADVANTAGE

While I also felt terrible for Jamaica's female 4x400m quartet, what's questionable for me is whether indoor athletics is advantageous for a 400m athlete anyway. Yes, the Indoors is good preparation in the short sprints, the hurdles, and the jumps, as it helps with speed and explosive-ness early in the season. For a 400m runner, however, traversing that 200m track with so many curves, narrow lanes, and slanted corners is a distinct disadvantage. It thus becomes merely a novelty that I can no longer enjoy from my living room.

So yes, if the lanes are narrow, the curves are tighter, and the track is smaller and sloped with athletes pushing against their centre of gravity, the appeal is gone for me over anything longer than 60m, such as the 400m. And I will admit again that not even the 60m gets my full respect as I'm not convinced this will necessarily translate over 100m where athletes like Christian Coleman have been known to fade over the last 40m anyway.

And so it's over, and now the IAAF has to go back to the drawing board. It's good to have rules, and it's even better when you don't have to enforce them, but I posit that given the propensity for breaches based on the configuration of the track, once there is no advantage or impediment, the rules ought to be relaxed. Once rules become too stringent, they detract from the free-flowing nature of sports, kill the excitement in the living room, and mar our ability to celebrate for one athlete if it's at the expense of another. So, Lord Coe and company, let's get this right, please, because nobody wins when nobody wins. One love.