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In another thread on the 200, Lee Nichols cited the following URL in which Maurice Greene blamed the FS rule for slowing people down this year.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=s ... den_gala_1
Some real analysis of a lot of numbers needs to be done before any meaningful conclusions can be drawn, but I was curious as to whether or not any trends can be spotted this early into the game, so trying to get "similar" circumstances I pulled together reaction times for the men's 60s in the last 5 World Indoor Championships. So I could use the same number of marks to average each year, I only used the first 6 finishers. (Maybe I should have thrown out the high and low or something)
At any rate, here's the average reaction time for the first six finishers in each of those years:
2003--0.132
2001--0.129
1999--0.122
1997--0.134
1995--0.125
So this year was slower than three of the years but faster than another. And the difference between the slowest and fastest years is about a 100th of a second.
If the guys are running a 10th or more slower, early evidence suggests to me that it's not because they're reacting to the gun that much slower.
I did actually look at 1993 and earlier, but the reaction times are so much slower (like 0.150 for '93) I was initially mystified. Then I remembered that it was after '93 that the IAAF switched to the Seiko "silent-gun" blocks, which have proved to give faster reaction times than the ones used in the OG (viz Julin & Dapena).
Another stat of note: in the GP FInal last year (Monty's WR race), the average reaction time was 0.159. Take out Monty's other-worldly 0.104 and it was 0.167. Average reaction time at this year's GP meet in Paris? 0.125. Yup, those new rules are really slowing them down.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=s ... den_gala_1
Some real analysis of a lot of numbers needs to be done before any meaningful conclusions can be drawn, but I was curious as to whether or not any trends can be spotted this early into the game, so trying to get "similar" circumstances I pulled together reaction times for the men's 60s in the last 5 World Indoor Championships. So I could use the same number of marks to average each year, I only used the first 6 finishers. (Maybe I should have thrown out the high and low or something)
At any rate, here's the average reaction time for the first six finishers in each of those years:
2003--0.132
2001--0.129
1999--0.122
1997--0.134
1995--0.125
So this year was slower than three of the years but faster than another. And the difference between the slowest and fastest years is about a 100th of a second.
If the guys are running a 10th or more slower, early evidence suggests to me that it's not because they're reacting to the gun that much slower.
I did actually look at 1993 and earlier, but the reaction times are so much slower (like 0.150 for '93) I was initially mystified. Then I remembered that it was after '93 that the IAAF switched to the Seiko "silent-gun" blocks, which have proved to give faster reaction times than the ones used in the OG (viz Julin & Dapena).
Another stat of note: in the GP FInal last year (Monty's WR race), the average reaction time was 0.159. Take out Monty's other-worldly 0.104 and it was 0.167. Average reaction time at this year's GP meet in Paris? 0.125. Yup, those new rules are really slowing them down.
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