American Drummond takes stand after DQ

By Michael Smith, Globe Staff, 8/25/2003

PARIS -- Following his first-round heat yesterday in the 100 meters of the World Outdoor Track and Field Championships, Jon Drummond uttered an expletive for the International Amateur Athletic Federation's new rule that charges the first false start to the field and disqualifies subsequent offenders.

And to think, Drummond felt that way before he incurred the wrath of Rule 162.7. Drummond, a three-time member of US world champion 4 x 100 relay teams who, at 34, was in search of his first individual world title, committed a false start and was disqualified from the second 100 quarterfinal heat, along with Jamaica's Assafa Powell. Replays showed that Drummond's back (right) foot flinched, thus triggering the computerized sensors in the starting blocks. Dwight Thomas, also of Jamaica, committed the field's false start. Drummond's and Powell's reaction times to the second starting gun were .052 and .086 seconds, respectively; the minimum legal reaction time is .1 second.

Drummond protested vehemently to officials, saying emphatically, "I did not move." Sure enough, he refused to leave the track for at least another five minutes, as he lay on his back in Lane 4, hands folded behind his head, at one point ignoring an official standing over him with a red card. Drummond eventually left the track, only to do an about-face and return to the starting line, believing he could run under protest.

Those were just the highlights of a prolonged demonstration by first an emotional Drummond, then by a supportive Stade de France crowd, that delayed the remainder of yesterday's competition by close to a half-hour and deflected the attention off Americans Kelli White and Torri Edwards's 1-2 finish in the women's 100.

Ato Boldon, who after at least a dozen resets because of crowd noise, won the Drummond-less second heat, at first withheld comment, then let loose on the controversial rule, which clearly lacks support among male sprinters.

"We told them this rule was going to do this," Boldon said. "Ask my manager, ask anybody in my camp, I said, `Watch, someone was going to get thrown out, it was going to be a scene, and it was going to ruin the World Championships.' That's exactly what's going on.

"I mean, I want to win, but I don't want Jon Drummond to get thrown out. It's the wrong call. The machine makes a wrong call, it's all over, and the machine made the wrong call. There's 50 [thousand], 100,000 pairs of eyes in here that can see that obviously, it's the wrong call."

Drummond clearly agreed, or disagreed, as was the case. As he left the track -- shirtless, his trademark -- to applause the first time, he was clearly fighting back tears. Then, following what looked to be advice from an unknown party, he abruptly returned to Lane 4, where he shook hands with the other competitors and began warming up. His coach, John Smith, urged him to return to "get back out there." Powell followed Drummond's lead and returned to Lane 3. The scene was reminiscent of the one Britain's Linford Christie caused when he was disqualified from the 100 at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.

When it became clear Drummond would not go easily, the field was asked to leave the track so that the third and fourth heats could be run. Drummond waved at the crowd as he left the track for the final time. He had to be consoled by Smith in the warmup area, and several times fell to the grass in tears.

By then, Drummond likely had realized his mistake. "I flinched," Drummond said in a statement, "the guy next to me flinched, and another guy flinched. I didn't understand the rule to mean that a flinch is a false start. I protested because this is my livelihood. At this point in my career, for me to lose an opportunity to pursue a dream, it crushes me. I walked away from what I had worked for the whole year."

USA Track and Field released a statement, saying, "The US delegation regrets the delay in [yesterday's] 100 meter quarterfinal competition. It was an unprecedented circumstance that was challenging for everyone. USATF worked with meet officials to ensure that Mr. Drummond received a full review of the situation under all relevant rules. Once the situation was resolved, Mr. Drummond withdrew from the competition and shook the hands of the officials."

External circumstances may have led to Drummond, considered one of the world's fastest starters, experiencing difficulty holding still. In the day's last event, the final of the women's 100, Gail Devers asked for a reset just as the gun was about to go off. Saturday she complained about being held in the starting block too long and "falling asleep."

"You're on your toes," Devers said yesterday after placing last in the final. "You can only hold that position for a certain amount of time. I felt my foot slipping, so I raised my hand before it moved, because I didn't want that to happen to me."

White said she has no problem with the international rule, implemented this year. "I do agree with the false start rule," she said. "It's kind of different for the women because we don't tend to false start as much. I think it does cut down on the number of false starts."

White would be in the minority among male sprinters. "Athletes, we really don't like the rule," said 100 semifinalist Kim Collins, who, like Drummond, attended Texas Christian. "They're saying that if you false start, and I go on the line and so much as sneeze, I'm gone . . . We felt more comfortable when the rule was two for each person . . . The purpose of the rule was to make sure the event moved much faster. It's not helping.

"Some people are going to try this stunt again. They're going to say, `I'm not moving,' and what are we going to do? I understand his claim, but the judge's decision is final. I would have left the track. What am I going to prove? Nothing. That's life.

"It took a half-hour for a 10-second race. There are cameras from all over the world, everybody home sitting, wondering, what's going on? It's a bad image on France. And then they're going to look at the IAAF, and then him, and then point to him being an American. It's not good."