They do it from behind at the Drake Relays, with assistant starters
watching in front.
In the worst case, if a starter stood (off the track, of course) on a
line with the starting line, the sound of the gun would reach the
runner in lane 1 about 0.025 seconds before it reached the runner in
lane 7. High-end track meets put speakers in the blocks.
On Jun 21, 2008, at 11:05 PM, Dan Kaplan wrote:
From: Jorma Kurry <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
is there a reason why the starter could not stand behind the
runners in the straightaway races at that level?
Just venturing a guess... Sounds are more difficult to localize
and identify when they come from behind, if I remember correctly.
That uncertainty might create more jumps. Also, the starter has to
wait for everyone to be still, and that's much more difficult to
determine from behind. It would probably require a change of
duties for the starting crew.
Dan