‘Clearly, something is off’
Coaches mull over the reasons for false-starting Champs athletes
Published:Thursday | March 27, 2025 | 12:11 AMGregory Bryce/Staff Reporter
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DESPITE THE wonderful performances that have come over the course of the first two days of the ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys and Girls’ Athletics Championships, there is still much talk surrounding another topic: false starts. It has been a common theme...
DESPITE THE wonderful performances that have come over the course of the first two days of the ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys and Girls’ Athletics Championships, there is still much talk surrounding another topic: false starts.
It has been a common theme at this year’s staging for races to be called back due to an athlete leaving the blocks before the official’s gun.
In fact, there were more than 20 false starts recorded on the first day of competition, four of which came from a single heat in the Boys’ Class One 100 metres.
Veteran coach Orville Brown, who leads the Wolmer’s Boys’ School contingent, said the persistent false starts have raised some concern surrounding the equipment being used.
He also said it is equally important for athletes and spectators to be educated on all the rules surrounding false starts and faulty starts to ensure that they are fully aware of the situations on the track.
“Since the introduction of the no false start rule and watching meets since that time, I have never witnessed this many false starts,” Brown told The Gleaner.
“It has raised a concern about the calibration of the equipment. I assume the technology would produce the metrics that it was designed to produce, but clearly something is off.”
He continued, “As stewards of the sport, we have to culturise and educate athletes and spectators alike about the nuances of the false start rule dynamics to reduce or remove the ambiguity.”
Gregg Scott, head coach of Ferncourt High, however, believes that the false starts have been due to athletes trying to anticipate the gun rather than waiting for the signal.
He said the equipment should not be blamed for the incidents, but rather, it is the athletes’ mentalities that are the root of the issue.
“I have observed the starts, and I think that the majority of it is not because of the the equipment but the mental state of the athletes,” Scott said.
“I have observed that they are not waiting, but rather, they are trying to anticipate the gun and causing a lot of false starts.”
He explained that this has also caused a domino effect where athletes who are anticipating the gun are then affecting their peers who are reacting to their movements in the blocks.
Scott believes that it is the coach’s duty to ensure that their athletes enter the competition with a level head and are educated on how to avoid committing a false start.
“When I speak to my athletes, I tell them to get in the set position and wait for a sound. Don’t wait for a movement. Only once you hear the sound, then you can react because anything before that, you’re going to false start,” he explained.
“You can’t fully equip them, but what I do, in my experience, I talk to them a lot about what to expect, what not to do, and to be patient. We need to remember that they are young, so we have to teach them to be patient.
“When they’re impatient, they tend to false start or do things that they are not to do. I always tell them that whatever you do in practice, it is what you should do in competition.”
The five-day championships, a staple of the Jamaica athletic calendar, will continue today with day-three action and will run until Saturday at the National Stadium.