New event make-overs coming?

[imaginative]

It appears that the IAAF is out to `` to revise the format of the Long Jump,
Triple Jump and Shot Put Finals aimed at making these events more exciting
and reducing their duration'' again. I say, leave well enough alone, and let
any rule changes come from the athletes.

http://www.iaaf.org/aboutiaaf/news/newsid=47331.html

[Marlow]

I like it the way it is, but if they want to experiment, have the qualifying and finals at the same time. After the first 3 jumps, have a short break, eliminate all but the top 8, give each 3 more jumps and reorder each round, last goes first.

[nztrackfan]

Under the current format New Zealand's television audience watching the women's shot put final was greater than that watching the All Black vs Springbok rugby test! I suspect if Valerie hadn't been competing it wouldn't have made any difference if there was an altered format - hardly anyone would have been watching the shot put.

[lonewolf]

We are already re-ordering LJ after fifth round, which is kind of a nuisance.. and has resulted in jumpers having to jump twice in succession.. not a big deal with the slight delay in reorder. There is some logic in final round reorder and giving the leading jumper the last shot at defending his/her lead.

Re-ordering after every round, however, would create a real mess. .not just the delay in repeatedly figuring out the order and informing the jumpers of the new order, the jumpers could not get into a rythm or warmup in anticipation of their turn coming up. Bad idea.

[lonewolf]

I like it the way it is, but if they want to experiment, have the qualifying and finals at the same time. After the first 3 jumps, have a short break, eliminate all but the top 8, give each 3 more jumps and reorder each round, last goes first.

Most meets go directly from the the entire field to an eight man final now. .

A qualifying session make sense at the Olympics because of the large field which includes token jumpers just representing their country without regard to meeting a standard.
I don't know why they have a qualifing session at the Trials. All the jumpers will have met a prescribed minimum distance. If you have no more than two flights of 10 to twelve jumpers, going directly to an eight man final is the fastest and most efficient procedure.

The purpose of the qualifying session, of course, is to eliminate non-competitve jumpers from a large field, allowing a smaller "'prime time" final. It also lets the best jumpers establish thier bonafides with minimum jumps and come back for "finals" after a rest period.

Unfortunately, it sometimes results in the best jumper(s) not even making the 12 man final..but, they might not have made the 8 man final either.

[Mellow Johnny]

I don't know why they have a qualifing session at the Trials.

C'mon lonewolf, you know exactly why...it's to mimic the Olympic schedule.

Which, this year, oddly enough, didn't really mimic it all the closely.

The most glaring example was at the Trials, women had 3 rounds of the 1500, at the Olympics, only 2.

Other differences too though. Women steeplers had 2 days rest between rounds at the Trials, only one day at the Olympics.

[lonewolf]

I don't know why they have a qualifing session at the Trials.

C'mon lonewolf, you know exactly why...it's to mimic the Olympic schedule.

Which, this year, oddly enough, didn't really mimic it all the closely.

.

Yes, that was poorly phrased. I know one stated reason is to duplicate the Olympic schedule but it doesn't really and is not necessary for the number of jumpers at the OT. I think only a couple of the men and women actually jumped the required distance to automatically advance to the 12 person "finals " All others took their three jumps and we took the top twelve.

[tandfman]

The most glaring example was at the Trials, women had 3 rounds of the 1500, at the Olympics, only 2.

The Olympics were supposed to have 3. I believe they cancelled the first round a few days before the competition started because the number of entries was not as large as they had anticipated. There was no way anyone could have known that when they did the timetable for the Trials.

[polevaultpower]

Other differences too though. Women steeplers had 2 days rest between rounds at the Trials, only one day at the Olympics.

Same with the women pole vaulters, but I realized that at the Olympics the prelims were in a morning session and the finals were in an evening session, so it was more like 1.5 days of rest, and I saw how they could justify it either way.