It's been more than 24-hours since the men's 100m final at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, and debate rages on about how the winner of the much-talked about final was determined.
On social media, I continue to be inundated with questions about what factors were considered in separating the two - American Noah Lyles, who was declared winner, and Jamaican Kinshane Thompson, who got the silver - despite both athletes finishing with the same time of 9.79s.
Officially, Lyles won by 5000th of a second, or numerically, by 0.005s. The final times were determined to be 9.784s for Lyles and 9.789s for Thompson.
Officially, it was the slimmest margin a champion has ever been determined in Olympics history, and the first time all eight (8) finalists ran sub-10 times in 100m.
The still pictures at the finish line show the Jamaican's foot firmly planted on the finish line first and his head appears to be ahead of Lyle's as well, leading many to suggest that means he won, and thus was robbed.
The same image shows Lyle's torso, or upper body, slightly ahead, confirming he won the race.
In the end, it took the photo finish a few vital seconds - as athletes, spectators and journalists held their breath - to confirm the 27-year-old American as the winner.
But there are people who are hearing the idea of a torso being important in determining athletics results for the first time, so let's explain.
To understand what happened on Sunday night, we first need to understand how World Athletics - the governing body for athletics explains what a photo finish is.
At the finish line of every athletic track, there are a number of equipment installed to determine who crossed the line first.
First is the “slit-video” system, which scans an ultra-thin segment of the track precisely aligned with the finish line at an incredible 2,000 times per second. This provides an unbroken image of each athlete crossing the line — and coordinates it with the athlete’s time.
In addition to that, there’s another camera on the other side of the field in case a runner is hidden or blocked by another runner.
Then there's the flash timer, which clocks the final times of athletes.
According to experts, that system has a margin of error that can throw times off by 0.01 or 0.02 of the official time. But this is not an issue because, that margin is compensated for by the other two systems in place.
Now the most important part of determining the official timing, which in turn decides the race, is the body part that has to cross the finish line.
In the 100m final at the Paris Olympics, Thompson’s foot looks like it breached first. The athlete’s torso is the body part that has to cross the finish line for official timing registration, not his foot or head or any other part, just the torso. The torso, or trunk, of a person includes the chest, abdomen, pelvis, and back.
In the event of a close race like Sunday's, the review process is conducted where evidence from all three systems are consolidated to ensure the athlete whose torso crossed first, however marginal, is rightfully declared the winner. In this case, it was Noah Lyles.
Lyles started joint-slowest out of the 8 men in the final, along with Botswana's Letsile Tebogo, and was in 8th place for the first half of the race, but his phenomenal top end speed meant he was able to catch up with the rest of the pack and nick the win in the process.
The Jamaican started out in fourth place and led the race right until the last 10m before Lyles took over and nosed ahead for gold.
This was already the most competitive final at the Olympic level, with it being the first time that an athlete with a sub-10 mark failed to make the last run. All eight finalists clocked sub-10 timings in the final, and fine margins separated one from the other.
Latest Stories
-
Six outstanding women-owned businesses awarded GHS936,000 at Standard Chartered Women in Tech Incubator Programme
9 mins -
Chief Imam, clergy pray for Bawumia ahead of filing of nomination
11 mins -
Gideon Boako files nomination for Tano North parliamentary seat
12 mins -
AFCON 2025Q: Lethargic Black Stars held to 1-1 draw against Niger
23 mins -
KNUST Geomatic Engineering students to develop maps for improved town planning
25 mins -
Standard Chartered leverages technology to unlock literacy, public speaking potential in youth
38 mins -
Court rules being amended to set timelines for parliamentary election petitions – Chief Justice
44 mins -
Fighting galamsey will be tough, requires sacrifices – Mahama
48 mins -
Six women-owned businesses awarded GH₵936k at SCWIT incubator programme
54 mins -
Forest invasion: Land Minister’s half-truth to Parliament & the contradictions fueling mining in Ghana’s forest reserves
1 hour -
Bisa Kdei releases video for ‘Boso’
1 hour -
Akpaloo, Ayariga, others file nominations at EC HQ ahead of Dec. 7 poll
1 hour -
Cars plunge into river as super typhoon destroys Vietnam bridge
1 hour -
NPP offered me huge amount of money to join them, but I declined – Jak Alolome
2 hours -
Galamsey is like Satan and must be exorcised and not reformed
2 hours