The Long Jump Revamp: Know about the take-off change World Athletics are considering in the sport

World Athletics, the global governing body for the sport of Athletics, is planning to implement a new trial for measuring long jump take-offs. Under this proposal, a take-off zone will be used to calculate the jump of an athlete, instead of the traditional wooden board.

The organization has opted to introduce the change following the World Athletics Championships 2023 in Budapest, where one-third of the jumps were recorded as invalid or no-jumps due to athletes overstepping on the wooden board during their take-off.

In the Anything But Footy podcast, the CEO of World Athletics, Jon Ridgeon, revealed that the decision has been taken to minimize the number of invalid jumps in the long jump event. He emphasized in the podcast that every jump mattered, and focused on the inefficiency of the current method, resulting in the disqualification of numerous jumps.

Ridgeon stated in the podcast:

"It will mean that every jump counts.”

He added:

"So, we are testing at the moment a take-off zone, rather than a board.”

However, Jon Ridgeon added that the take-off zone would only be added after examining them in real-life circumstances, with the method being tested at low-level international meetings this year.

If the idea of the take-off zone in long jump doesn’t pass the expectations or fails during its testing, it won’t be introduced at the elite level. Moreover, the method won’t be implemented impulsively or in haste.

Ridgeon explained:

"We will spend this year testing it in real-life circumstances with very good athletes. If it doesn't pass testing, we will never introduce it. We are not going to introduce things on a whim."

What is the take-off zone and how is it different from the traditional wooden take-off board in long jump events?

Johnny Brackins in the Men's Long Jump during the 2024 USATF Indoors. (Photo by Sam Wasson/Getty Images)

In the long jump event involving a traditional wooden take-off board, athletes start by running down a runway, launch themselves in the air from the board, and aim to cover the maximum distance possible before landing in the sand pit area.

The traditional wooden take-off board, with a length of 20 cm, can be found at the end of the runway. The end of the board has a foul line. The athletes must take off without touching the line or any part of it for the jump to be considered valid.

However, in the case of the take-off zone, the athletes will get a bigger area to launch themselves, and the distance from there to where the athletes land in the pit will be considered as the length of the jump.