At this past weekend’s SEC Indoor Track and Field Championships, Georgia’s Christopher Morales-Williams ran a blistering 44.49 400m, setting a new Indoor World Record.
Unfortunately, Williams will not be able to fully celebrate his incredible run because World Athletics decided it would not ratify the performance due to a starting block issue.
According to Rule 31.14.5, starting blocks need to be linked to a World Athletics-certified Start Information System.
So, this wasn’t a performance-enhancing drug issue or questions about a false start issue. No, it was a starting blocks issue.
It’s another example of how track, one of the greatest and most underappreciated sports in the world (especially in the U.S.), can be in a great position to promote something exciting and positive but then cuts off its nose to spite its face.
We saw something similar happen to track star Sha’Carri Richardson three years ago when she was disqualified from the 100m at the Summer Games in 2021 after she tested positive for marijuana.
Although the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency bans marijuana during competitions, it isn’t banned outside of them and Richardson claimed she used marijuana to cope with stress she was experiencing at the time.
Marijuana is now legal across many states, yet the sport was slow to react to its legalization, leading to the star’s suspension.
To her credit, Sha’Carri took responsibility and accepted the verdict, but it’s another example of how track hampers itself from becoming an even greater sport.
Track did it again to Devon Allen at the World Athletics Championships when it disqualified him from the men’s 110m hurdles final for being .001 seconds faster than the .1 threshold that all athletes must have to qualify for a clean start. If you watched that race, which we did, you can clearly see that there was no advantage other than Allen being just that quick to react to the starting gun.
Fast forward to the SEC Championships and Christopher Morales Williams’ world record won’t be recognized as such because the blocks weren’t, as reported by Jonathan Gault of Lets Run, “linked to a WA-certified Start Information System.”
So because the SEC officials didn’t have that set-up, another athlete gets punished for doing what they’re supposed to as opposed to cheating or doing something not criminal.
Christopher Morales Williams’ world record 400-meter time will, according to Flo Track, “stand as a world best” and reportedly stand as an NCAA record.
But when Williams opens the world record books decades from now to show his kids and grandkids what he did in Arkansas in February 2024, his name won’t be there.
Simply because of some blocks.
