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A 20 cm wide beam determines whether you win or lose in the long jump. Because only those who hit it at takeoff make a valid jump. Hardly anyone knows this as well as Simon Ehammer (24). At last year’s World Athletics Championships, Appenzeller missed the long jump final due to a very thin jump. And in the heptathlon, the long jump zeros cost him a top result twice.
But now the time of the starting bar could be coming to an end. The World Athletics Federation wants to replace this with a drop zone. The matches should be shorter and more exciting. The first tests are underway. “Almost every jump would count. We also test new measuring methods so that the result can be determined immediately,” says association CEO Jonathan Ridgeon in the podcast “Everything but Footy”. President Sebastian Coe is also desperate for innovations to adapt athletics to the shorter attention spans of younger spectators.
Ehammer critical
However, Ehammer believes that creating a drop zone is the wrong approach. “Changes are needed, but abolishing the bar is going in the wrong direction,” he quotes the NZZ. This would eliminate a central technical long jump element, says the Swiss record holder. «My jump is becoming more and more confident as the season goes on. The only thing that helps is practice, practice and more practice.” Ehammer’s conclusion: “The beam must stay.”
Lewis: “Waiting for April Fool’s Day jokes”
Two legends criticize the planned revolution even more sharply. “You have to wait until April 1 to make April Fool’s jokes,” writes four-time Olympic long jump champion Carl Lewis (62). To him it is clear that abolishing the beam would take away the most difficult part of the long jump. The American makes an ironic comparison with basketball: “You just have to make the free throw basket bigger because so many people miss it. What do you think?”
Two-time Olympic champion Heike Drechsler (59) thinks the same. “The start-up is divided into different phases and especially the last of these phases is a rhythm phase,” the German told Sport1. “You have to concentrate on a point from which you jump and not on a zone.” Drechsler fears more athletes will slip and the run-up will become a safety hazard.
Despite all the criticism, the world association will not easily be deterred from its attempt. CEO Ridgeon: “We want to transform a sport that has been played in the same way for almost 150 years. We know this will not happen without controversy.”
Source : Blick
I’m Emma Jack, a news website author at 24 News Reporters. I have been in the industry for over five years and it has been an incredible journey so far. I specialize in sports reporting and am highly knowledgeable about the latest trends and developments in this field.
