Cinder track starting blocks8/11/2023 His feet were 17 inches apart, and his front foot 8 inches from the starting line. In the 1930s, the generally accepted orthodox position was often called the “Duffy” start because that’s the way Georgetown champion Arthur Duffy set his blocks. Starting blocks have evolved over the years, but not without controversy. Just three months before the Moscow Games, Wells had not even used blocks in competition because he “preferred to start with his feet firmly on the track.” Finding the Right Positioning In yet another piece of bizarre starting block trivia, 1980 Olympic gold medalist Alan Wells of Britain didn’t want to use starting blocks, but they were then required by the IAAF for the Olympic Games. sprinter Thane Baker put down his starting blocks pointing in the wrong direction. Now every athlete is using starting blocks, and each year more research is published on the subject.Įven though starting blocks were used in the ’48 Olympics for the first time, sprinters still struggled with them. Modern blocks are now a part of sprinting, but in the past athletes had to dig into a dirt track. Track and field historians believe that the trowel was still in use in the 1970s and early ’80s before the newer, rubberized surfaces became more affordable. Such holes were not only unstable, but they were also a “groundskeeper’s nightmare” on dirt, grass, or cinder tracks. Until 1948, the best “carry on” item sprinters brought to the track remained that trowel for digging holes at the spots where they wanted to place their feet. George Simpson, a 20-year-old star from Ohio State, set the 100-yard world record at 9.4 in 1929, but the IAAF did not recognize that mark because Simpson had used a piece of equipment: starting blocks. In fact, Abrahams once mentioned how he also carried a piece of string cut to the length of his first stride, put the string down on the track, extended it forward, and then made a mark in the track where he focused his eyes when he heard the “set” command. Sprinters took meticulous care making those starting holes, concerned about precisely where their first foot out of the holes would place them. Back then, the only piece of equipment sprinters carried onto the track was a trowel for digging two holes to place their feet in. There were no starting blocks when Harold Abrahams won the 100-meter gold medal in the 1924 Olympics. Watching the perplexed sprinters trying to figure it out, you’d think they were being asked to line up colors on a Rubik’s Cube! History of the Starting Blockīut that wasn’t always the case. Or course, the sprinter can’t remember what slot the pedal came out of. Then, right when athletes appear to figure it out, they go to meets where the pedals are not locked into the rail and, sure enough, at least one of those pedals falls out of its slot and bounces on the track (or on the sprinter’s foot). If they do stumble, their coaches get upset, point out that their poor start cost them a good time, and feel obligated to give them some kind of quick lesson-not just how to place their blocks, but how to slide the pedals to their proper locations along the rail. Many sprinters simply look to the athletes next to them, set their blocks the same way, and hope they don’t stumble on the start. Besides what a sprinter wears to the starting line for a race, there is no piece of equipment they carry out to the track that’s more important than a set of starting blocks, says Click To Tweet Just go to any junior high school meet-or even many high school meets-and you are sure to find athletes completely perplexed by how best to set up two angled pedals attached to a single metal rail. Yet, despite blocks being used in the Olympics for more than 70 years, how best to set these blocks remains a conundrum. Aside from what a sprinter wears as they report to the starting line for a race, there is no piece of equipment they carry out to the track that’s more important than a set of starting blocks.
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