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The nine-time Olympic champion warned Tara Davis-Woodhall and fellow long jumpers that World Athletics' new take-off zone format will limit jump distances and fail to reduce fouls effectively.
Nine-time Olympic champion Carl Lewis has explained what Tara Davis-Woodhall, Malaika Mihambo and other long jumpers stand to lose with the new long jump format that World Athletics wants to introduce.
World Athletics aims to replace the traditional take-off board with a bigger take-off zone. The main reason behind this is to reduce foul jumps and potentially enhance excitement and fairness for athletes but Carl Lewis thinks that no significant changes will happen.
Appearing on an interview with Athletics Weekly, the former long jumper explained that the format will prevent athletes from clearing longer distances hence the world record should not be in sight for them at the moment until things go back to normal.
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He added that the move will not help that much when it comes to fouling, revealing that it will only affect the competitiveness of the athletes and it is more harmful than it looks on the outside.
“I think the bigger issue is when they are really coming down to what they want to do and which to me is a little bit concerning, is I just think that they decided that jumpers are not going to jump far enough anymore,” Carl Lewis said.
“I’m just being honest, the fouling situation they mentioned has not truly changed that much and the only thing that has changed is the distances.
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“Right now, long jump is not competitive to what it was like 25 or 35 years ago. You saw the performances, they are not going to get any better, there are some things that are more technical.”
He added that sports most rely on genetics but when it comes to the long jump, technique goes a long way since the body is not generally used to jumping forward.
Carl Lewis explained that with the change, athletes will be forced to find other wats to be creative since there is now a bigger space from the take-off as he insisted that it will also take time to measure in every track meet.
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“The distance will not be better and fouling will not change much. We are dealing with genetics and as humans, we are not designed to jump high all the things that we do on air is to counteract the forward rotation as we know and that’s because your body is not designed to jump forward,” he shared.
“If we have a big space, we could tell people to move back to the middle and jump. It’s also going to take more time to measure. It just doesn’t make any sense.”
However, he understands that athletes do not have a choice and will have to show up at Diamond League Meetings and other events for their earnings. He also revealed that they are contracted and they can’t boycott the events unless they want their contracts ended.
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