For long jumpers, no-jumps have always been a thorn in the road to dominance. And the blame was all on the narrow, 20cm take-off board. To fix recurring issues and reduce lost jumps, World Athletics introduced a new solution. But the athletes like Tara Davis-Woodhall and Carl Lewis pushed back. And their resistance has now forced the governing body to make a decisive call.

World Athletics’ proposed fix was the new take-off zone, a system introduced in February 2024 and tested at multiple meets over the past two years. Instead of a rigid take-off board, athletes would jump from a defined “zone,” allowing legal jumps as long as the foot landed anywhere inside it. The idea was meant to reduce fouls, improve accuracy, and make the event more appealing to spectators.

However, despite the data

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