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'No chance' of changing false start rule - Diack

Lamine Diack has stood firm on the false start rule © Getty Images

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Athletics chief Lamine Diack insists there is "no chance" of changing the false start rule in time for next summer's London 2012 Olympics.

The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) president defended the controversial false start rule that saw world record holder Usain Bolt disqualified from the men's 100m final at the World Athletics Championships in South Korea.

British athletes Christine Ohuruogu and Dwain Chambers also fell foul of the rule, but it was Bolt's disqualification that prompted calls for the one-strike rule to be changed. But Diack stood firm, claiming all athletes were happy to comply with the rules.

"I think it was Bolt disqualified by false start, I did not expect this," Diack told Reuters. "[But] I work for this rule. I like very much this rule, I vote for having this rule.

"[In the past] all athletes have the possibility to have one [false start], so you can have eight. Think about television... it was disturbing to have everybody able to make a false start. After that we said 'one'. And we see that some are making it voluntarily and still stay in the competition. So now we say we do not want one voluntarily disturbing the competition.

"So I am happy with the rule. [Bolt] understands that because he made a false start and immediately he takes off his T-shirt and says, 'OK I go out'."

Until 2001, every athlete had the right to one false start before disqualification, but a change in the rules deemed that one false start would be a warning for all competitors, and an athlete would then be disqualified for a subsequent false start.

Then in 2009, under pressure from television companies, delegates from IAAF member federations voted in favour of the new rule, which critics claim takes the attempt to streamline the sport too far.

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