Demise of the starter

The hardest moment to watch at the recent Carifta Games arrived at the very end. With all presentations done and the speeches all finished, Jaylen Bennett of the St Kitts and Nevis team ran the final race of the three-day meet in Nassau. Somehow, an administrative glitch had put him out of the under-17 200 metres final and the only route to parity was for Bennett to beat the bronze medal time of 22.03 seconds, running alone.

Bennett gave it everything he had ... and missed by 0.04 of a second. Had he been my son, I wouldn’t know what to say to him. Equally, had bronze medallist Andrew Brown of The Bahamas been my son and Bennett beaten his time by 0.01, I’d have been similarly lost for words.

This came at the end of a Games which challenged the traditional authority of the starter. In the under-20 boys 4x100-m, Zachary Evans of The Bahamas remained in the set position when the gun fired. By the time the recall gun was heard, the other lead-off runners were speeding around the curve. Presuming something had ruined his attempt to assure a fair start for all, the starter sent all the starters back to their blocks.

If I had a dollar for every time I’ve witnessed this in athletics, I’d be a millionaire. When the race got under way, Jamaica finished first with The Bahamians second.

The announcement of a protest, on the grounds that Evans was fresh for the restart and that the other lead-off runners were therefore at a disadvantage was a shock. After much wrangling and the refusal of almost all the 4x100m finalists to contest a re-run, the results of the race were left untouched.

A sterner challenge to the power of the starter appeared in the under-20 110-m hurdles final. Jamaica’s 2022 World Under-20 finalist Demario Prince was out fast, and everyone’s heart was in their collective mouths. Perhaps, seeing or sensing that some outside influence might have affected that first attempt to get the race under way, the starter charged no one and a green card was issued.

Prince won the restart, but was disqualified for a false start much later. I’m told that the lad discovered his fate when he arrived for the medal presentation ceremony. A protest had been lodged and, unlike the one for the 4x100-m, this was upheld.

If these challenges to the discretionary powers of the starter continue, we are on our way to an era where the starter is replaced by a system that relies on super smart blocks and a high-tech gun that remotely sounds when everyone is steady at the set position. If the sport moves that way in the future, the starter will become an endangered species.

Hubert Lawrence has covered the Carifta Games in 1995, 2010, 2011, 2019, 2022 and 2023.