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Athletics

World Athletics to experiment with new long jump take-off

World Athletics has considered the introduction of a new trial for measuring long jump take-offs.

Preliminary discussions have proposed a "take-off zone" to replace the traditional wooden board, where a no-jump is called if the athlete's foot crosses the line.

The jump will be measured from where the athlete's front foot takes off to where they land in the pit.

"It will mean that every jump counts," World Athletics CEO Jon Ridgeon told the Anything But Footy Podcast.

"It adds to the jeopardy and the drama of the competition."

The changes are being considered ostensibly to reduce the amount of no-jumps recorded at major tournaments.

Up to a third of all jumps at the 2023 World Championships in Budapest did not count as athletes overstepped in pursuit of the perfect take-off, according to Ridgeon.

"That doesn't work, that is a waste of time," he added. "So we are testing at the moment a take-off zone, rather than a board.

"But at the same time we are trying to work out ways of getting instant results so that you don't have to wait 20 or 30 seconds before the result pops up, and how we speed up the whole thing."

The long jump trial was one example used by

According to Ridgeon, this would be part of World Athletics' commitment to constant improvement in the sport, making processes quicker and more exciting, particularly for field events.

"You cannot make change in a sport that was basically invented 150 years ago without some controversy," he said.

"If you have dedicated your life to hitting that take-off board perfectly and then suddenly we replace it with a take-off zone, I totally get that there might be initial resistance.

"We will spend this year testing it in real life circumstances with very good athletes. If it doesn't pass testing, we will never introduce it. We are not going to introduce things on a whim."

World Athletics is also considering the introduction of an additional annual global event.

When approved, this new event will be scheduled for fallow years on the athletics calendar.

He added: "It's like tennis or golf having a year without all their majors - it would never happen, so why would we have a year where we don't have a global championship bringing a billion eyeballs to our sport?"

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DISCLAIMER: The Views, Comments, Opinions, Contributions and Statements made by Readers and Contributors on this platform do not necessarily represent the views or policy of Multimedia Group Limited.