Explained: How a take-off foul denied long jumper Murali Sreeshankar gold medal at Commonwealth Games-Sports News , Firstpost

India’s Murali Sreeshankar in action during the men’s long jump final at the 2022 Commonwealth Games. AP

Murali Sreeshankar scripted history on Thursday by becoming India’s first male athlete to clinch a medal in the long jump event at Commonwealth Games. However, India lost the opportunity to win a gold medal in the event due to a laser-equipped take-off board that twice flagged Sreeshankar by extremely narrow margins for crossing the line and committing a foul at the ongoing 2022 CWG in Birmingham.

Here’s what went wrong for Sreeshankar:

Introduction of new technology

Earlier, the take-off board was monitored manually with an official sitting close to the board and raising a red or white flag to declare whether a jumper had transgressed the line and committed a foul or electronically.

However, World Athletics has recently introduced a digital take-off board in which a laser beam acts like the take-off line. Thus interrupting or breaking that laser beam could result in the jumper’s effort being declared a foul, and with titles decided by a margin of centimetres, overstepping the line could turn out to be a big disadvantage.

Sreeshankar’s effort declared a foul due to digital take-off board

According to the system, Sreeshankar’s toe was a millimetre across the line and his jump, which would have been in the range of 8.30, was declared illegal. Similarly, his effort on his sixth and last jump too was flagged as illegal by a narrow margin, and the 23-year-old Indian athlete was denied a gold medal as he needed an effort of more than 7.94 to overtake his opponent from the Bahamas on the second jump to win the gold.

“I was very surprised by the narrow margin by which I was shown to have crossed the line. It was too small a magin,” said Sreeshankar.

What does rule say?

It is worth to mention that, the World Athletics made a change in their technical rulebook on 8 September, 2020. World Athletics rule-book rule 30, clause 30.1, sub-clause 30.1.1, defines a foul jump primarily as: “An athlete fails if . . . they while taking off (prior to the instant at which they cease contact with the take-off board or ground), break the vertical plane of the take-off line with any part of their take-off foot/shoe…”

Participants not happy with new tech

“The laser beam is very sensitive and could be triggered by an athlete’s foot overstepping by even a millimetre. It was introduced for the first time at the World Athletics Indoor Championships in March this year and had caused an uproar as the participants were not happy with some of the narrow margins that were flagged as foul,” explained Adille Sumariwalla, Athletics Federation of India (AFI), president, who is as a jury member at the ongoing CWG in Birmingham.

Different camera angles stirred controversy

There are some pics circulating on social media which depicts that Sreeshankar’s toe was well behind the line, but those pics are from a broadcast camera that isn’t positioned at the same angle as the official measuring camera. Hence, it has caused the confusion and stirred a debate on social media with people thinking that Sreeshankar was robbed of gold medal. But, one should note that measuring camera is calibrated to the vertical plane, which actually shows if a foul has been committed or not.

It is likely that the tip of Sreeshankar’s boot crossed the line just prior to lifting off and the images of the same would have been available to the officials.

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