Dear Editor, 

Who will be forthright enough to send a message to the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) on behalf of athletes? If anyone will be ready and willing to be the messenger to this very important call, it will be good for everyone.

Your duty is to inform the IAAF that with the World Championships just a few weeks away we are kindly asking for a withdrawal of the current false start rule, and a re-imposition of the old rule. Bring it back to square one.

In other words, this current false start rule is a robber of chances in which an athlete is being disqualified from a race for mistakenly jumping the gun on the first go, without being given a second chance to compete. 

But, the former false start rule, was one of mercy, one of kindness, fairness and justice, in which an athlete who false started in a race  would be given another opportunity to get back on the mark. In days gone by many chances were given to track stars when they false started.

Furthermore, ask the IAAF to take into consideration athletes who have trained so hard for months to race in competitions, and when they are ready to run in the big event they are kicked out just because they jumped the gun on the first go. This is absolutely ridiculous and it’s a great pain and disappointment for both the athlete and the spectators.

Donald J McKoy