Mixed reviews on new tech for jump events
Published:Tuesday | March 29, 2022 | 12:09 AMDaniel Wheeler/Staff Reporter
The implementation of new technology used to judge take-off fouls for the long and triple jump events has received mixed reviews from SprinTec head coach Maurice Wilson and national jumps coach Kerry Lee Ricketts.
The technology was first introduced at the recently concluded World Athletics Indoor Championships in Belgrade, Serbia, replacing the traditional use of plasticine to determine if any part of the athlete’s foot broke the vertical plane of the take-off line. For each attempt, a red or green light is flashed depending on whether it was a foul or not.
The use of the equipment brought criticism from former and current athletes who were not pleased with the latest changes to the field events as there were incidents at the World Indoors that saw the technology determine a no jump for an athlete when he or she had not crossed the vertical plane. While Wilson says that those errors should be eliminated, he is in support of the technology
“We need to iron out those kinks but I am in support of the new technology. I think it is going to make life easier for the officials and it is going to take out the human element of how we measure and let it be left to the technology to decide precisely,” Wilson told The Gleaner.
Ricketts, who coaches the 2019 World Championship triple jump silver medallist Shanieka Ricketts, says that technology will force a change in approach and determination of how the ideal jump is determined because of the problems at the World Indoors.
“What was normally perfect on the board will now be given as a no jump. I think World Athletics needs to leave the jumps alone. Every year they come up with something new and it doesn’t work. The jumpers, the coaches, everybody is making it known we don’t like this,” Ricketts said. And I think rather than just leaving the thing as it is, they are still coming up with something new. I don’t think we need that.”
Four-time Olympic long jump champion Carl Lewis has expressed similar frustrations on social media regarding the technology.
“The rules committee has destroyed the field events. They are an embarrassment to this and any sport,” Lewis said on March 20. “They have no ... clue about any of these events. This makes no sense, as we went down this road in the 1980s. Who brings these ideas up in the first place?”
The technology is set to be used for the 2022 World Athletics Championships in Oregon with no reviews on the matter in the coming months. That is according to an Athletics Weekly article published on March 21. While Wilson recognises the issues that the World Indoors presented, he says that a review system should be implemented as a stopgap.
“I think for the interim, the results should be reviewed similarly to Video Assistant Referee (in football), then we watch it over time. Then we can decide how we move forward on it,” Wilson said.