India missed a gold medal in long jump at the 2022 Commonwealth Games due to the new laser-equipped take-off board
The laser-equipped take-off board twice flagged Murali Sreeshankar by extremely narrow margins for crossing the line and committing a foul
Earlier, the take-off board was monitored manually with an official sitting close to the board and raising a red or white flag
World Athletics has recently introduced a digital take-off board in which a laser beam acts like the take-off line
Thus interrupting or breaking that laser beam could result in the jumper’s effort being declared a foul.
The laser beam is very sensitive and could be triggered by an athlete’s foot overstepping by even a millimetre
It was introduced for the first time at the World Athletics Indoor Championships in March
It caused an uproar as the participants were not happy with some of the narrow margins that were flagged as foul, as per President of Adille Sumariwalla, Athletics Federation of India
Murali Sreeshankar’s jumps were adjudged fouls by this new system with even the athlete himself surprised by the margin by which he was shown to have crossed the line
“I was very surprised by the narrow margin by which I was shown to have crossed the line. It was too small a magin,” said Sreeshankar