When in Doubt, Keep Running
While there has been much debate regarding false start rules over the years, there hasn’t been as much discussion regarding how to react when you think an opponent has false started or when you think you heard a second gun, but you’re not sure. This topic was recently pushed to the forefront of our minds during the final of the men’s 110 high hurdles at the Pan-American Games this past July. In one of the most bizarre set of circumstances that I’ve ever witnessed in all my years following track and field, the final had to be run twice. For those of you who didn’t see it or hear about it, here’s what happened:
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After the starter called the athletes into set position, one of the hurdlers (it appears to be O’Farrill of Cuba) flinched, setting off the automatic sensors. But he didn’t false start. The starter, apparently confused, didn’t call a false start. But he did shoot a second gun because of the sensor having been triggered. Problem was, he didn’t shoot the second gun until the athletes were three or four hurdles down the track. Some hurdlers heard it, some hurdlers didn’t.
The starter kept shooting the gun, and a few more guys stopped, but three kept going. Two of them, including David Oliver, finished the entire race, while Mikel Thomas of Trinidad tripped and fell over the last hurdle. Thomas was looking around a little bit, wondering where everybody was, when he came up too close to the tenth hurdle.
Thirty minutes later, the final was run again, and Oliver won “again,” this time running faster (13.07) than he did in the first go-round (13.17). Thomas also did well, finishing second in a personal best 13.17.
Mikel later said that because the second shot was fired so late, he had blocked out all outside stimulation by that point and was totally focused on racing. Same with Oliver, who ran all the way through the line and leaned at the end.
There are a couple important lessons to be learned here. Firstly, when it comes to false starts, and you’re not sure if one occurred or not, and you’re not sure if you heard a second gun or not, keep running. Secondly, you always have to be ready for the unpredictable.
As far as the first lesson goes, there are plenty of examples of times when an apparent (or obvious) false start has not been called, and we’ve all had that happen to us. The hurdler next to you takes off before the gun, you hesitate, assuming there will be second gun, then there is no second gun, and you may as well have stayed home that day. I can remember a time at a USATF Junior Olympic youth meet when a girl took a full step prior to the gun and no false start was called.
The most memorable example of this happening was in the 1984 Olympic final, when a false start occurred and was not called. Gold medal favorite Greg Foster hesitated just a bit, expecting a second gun. It didn’t come, and he ended up losing out to Roger Kingdom by .04. Examples like that serve as reminders that if you don’t hear a second gun, even if you know there was a false start, keep moving. Of course, this is something that has to be practiced, because the natural inclination is to stop when you know a race has been called back, or if you think you heard a second gun. So the coach should devote at least a small percentage of practice time to giving “false” false starts to train the athletes to respond appropriately.
As for the second lesson, hurdling is an endeavor that is all about focus, the ability to keep your mind on executing regardless of the numerous distractions that may be battling to divert your attention from the hurdle in front of you. I find it quite impressive that Oliver was able to come back from the “first” final and run even faster in the second one. I’d go as far as saying that it was one of the most impressive things I’ve ever seen in the sport. The semi-finals were earlier that day too. So he ran three sub-13.20 races within the space of three hours, two within a half hour of each other. On his Facebook page, Oliver explained the mindset that enabled him to rise to the occasion with such short turn-around time:
“After the initial shock of being told ‘you’ve got to run it again’ wore off, I was happy to get a second shot because I was disappointed with the original time. A key to being a professional athlete is not only possessing laser-like focus, but possessing the ability to re-focus that attention on the task at hand when things don’t go to plan. Running 13.15, 13.17 and 13.07 in a span of three hours, while not ideal, has allowed me to know that beyond a shadow of a doubt, my fitness level is right where it needs to be in advance of the World Championships next month.”
To me, it’s not just his physical fitness level that was tested to the extreme, but his mental/emotional fitness level as well. Same goes for Thomas. After falling in the first final, he came back and set a personal best in the second one. That’s the type of warrior mentality and keenness of focus that a hurdler must have. Oliver mentioned in the post-race interview that he often does multiple full-race reps in practice, so he just took the same approach that he had been trained to take.
Which brings me to the third point I want to make, which has to do with the importance of building up one’s hurdling endurance. As I discussed in another article in this issue, I don’t think it’s important for professionals to do a ton of reps in practice. But it is important that all of their reps be of high quality, and that they prepare themselves for the demands of rounds. Oliver’s decision to compete at the Pan-Ams at all was based on his desire to prepare himself for the rounds he would face at the World Championships later this month.
Unlike the indoor 60m race, the outdoor 110 race is a long race. To stay focused and to keep a fluid rhythm through ten hurdles and a finish line is very difficult, very demanding, and quite exhausting. So I’m not sure how many reps Oliver does of the full-race workout, but let’s say he does three. That means he’s only clearing 30 hurdles, so he’s not doing heavy volume. However, he is preparing himself for the demands of the race and of the rounds. I think that’s the question that athletes and coaches have to ask when coming up with training plans: what are the particular demands of this particular race? A hurdler can be in great shape, can be capable of running killer flat workouts, but will fall apart in the late stages of a hurdle race (or in the later rounds of a multiple-round meet) if he hasn’t cleared enough hurdles in practice.
A hurdler has to hurdle, and Oliver’s awe-inspiring performance certainly serves as evidence of that.
Footage of the first final:
Footage of the second final:
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