Devon Allen did not jump before the starting gun in the final of the 110m hurdles at the world athletics championships, but he got disqualified for a false start anyway.
The 27-year-old was hoping to pick up a world title before starting a three-season contract as a wide receiver with the NFL's Philadelphia Eagles.
He qualified fourth-fastest for the final but was too fast out of the blocks. Here's what that means in the athletics world.
Did Allen really leave the starting blocks too early?
Yes and no.
He didn't leave before the starting gun was fired, but sensors in the blocks measure "reaction time", which is the amount of time it takes for a runner's foot to leave the block after the gun goes off.
Obviously, leaving the starting block before the gun goes off is not on, but the rules also say it's a false start if a runner leaves within 0.1 seconds after the gun — the idea being that nobody could possibly react that quickly, and they have simply predicted when the gun would be fired instead of hearing it and then taking off.
According to World Athletics rules:
"The commencement of the start is defined in the case of a crouch start, as any motion by an athlete that includes or results in one or both feet losing contact with the foot plate[s] of the starting blocks, or one or both hands losing contact with the ground.
"If the starter determines that prior to receiving the report of the gun an athlete initiated a movement that was not stopped and continued into the commencement of their start, it shall also be a false start."
Coincidentally, it's quite similar to the rules around linemen moving too early at the line of scrimmage in NFL.
What happened with Allen?
His reaction time was measured at 0.099 seconds — one one-thousandth of a second too fast.
He lingered near the starting line after receiving his red card, throwing his arms out and looking at the replay on a monitor in the infield.
Ultimately, though, rules are rules, and Allen went back underneath the stadium to watch countrymen Grant Holloway and Trey Cunningham win gold and silver respectively.
Allen's reaction time in the semis was also only just legal, clocked at 0.101 of a second.
What did Allen and others think of the disqualification?
Allen's status as an NFL player trying to become an athletics world champion captured the attention of a lot of people, so his disqualification predictably caused something of an outcry on social media.
NFL quarterback Robert Griffin III was adamant Allen was robbed, tweeting:
But, after his initial disappointment and watching the race unfold, Allen was relatively gracious.
"When I was flagged I was very surprised … because I know for a fact that I didn't react until I heard the gun," he said.
To his credit, Allen took it in stride, retweeting an NBC Olympics tweet about Holloway's win and posting his own message of congratulations to his teammates:
Griffin clearly wasn't over it though, replying: "SHOULD HAVE BEEN A SWEEP. You should not have been Disqualified."
Shouldn't he have been warned?
A first false start used to result in a warning for the entire field, then the next false start resulted in a disqualification.
However, officials changed that rule in 2010 largely because false starts were rampant and slowed down the pace of the meets.
One of the most high-profile victims of the new rule was Usain Bolt, whose false start at the 2011 world championships cost him a chance at the 100m title.
The good news for Allen is he can refocus on his upcoming NFL career, with the Philadelphia Eagles training camp a week away.
AP/ABC
