Eagles wide receiver Devon Allen was making a bid for his first World Athletics Championships gold medal Sunday night. By the slimmest of margins, his run was cut short.
Allen was disqualified from the 110-meter hurdles final for a false start. Allen argued that he should not have been ruled out, which ended any chance of him competing in the race.
The elimination of the former Oregon wide receiver was met with loud boos by the crowd at Hayward Field on the University of Oregon campus in Eugene. It was a crushing blow to the three-time U.S. national champion in the event.
Here’s how his disqualification went down:
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Why Devon Allen was disqualified
Allen jumped too early. And by too early, we mean just too early.
Devon Allen is disqualified from the men’s 110m hurdles.
His reaction time was .001 faster than the .1 second threshold meaning he false started. #WorldAthleticsChamps pic.twitter.com/sIz6Pa1agy
— NBC Olympics (@NBCOlympics) July 18, 2022
Yes, his reaction time was one one-thousandth of a second too fast. Competitors in the hurdles are not allowed to react any faster than one-tenth of a second; Allen reacted in 0.0999 seconds. He did not leave before the gun went off, but he left too quickly after it did.
This rule has been criticized over the years as being outdated. A study by World Athletics in 2009 concluded that the threshold for false start penalties should be lowered to .08 or .085 seconds.
If Allen hadn’t been disqualified, the Americans might have swept the top three spots. Grant Holloway won gold at 13.03 seconds and Trey Cunningham won silver at 13.08. Spain’s Asier Martinez won bronze at 13.17.
Allen’s time in the semifinal earlier Sunday was 13.09 seconds. Per ESPN, Allen posted a time of 12.84 seconds in the 2022 USATF NYC Grand Prix, which was the third-fastest time in history.
