World Athletics abandons takeoff zone experiment in long jump after pushback from athletes

World Athletics has dropped its proposal to introduce takeoff zones in the long jump following widespread criticism from athletes.

The development was confirmed by Jon Ridgeon, World Athletics’ chief executive, in an interview with the Guardian.

The global federation announced in 2024 that it planned to trial a take-off zone, with jumps measured from where the front foot takes off to where it lands in the pit, rather than the traditional board, to reduce the amount of foul jumps.

“The reality is the athletes do not want to embrace it. So we’re not going to do it. You ultimately don’t go to war with your most important group of people,” Ridgeon said.

World Athletics had trialled the innovation at the ISTAF Indoor Düsseldorf meeting on February 9 and the ISTAF Indoor 2025 meeting in Berlin on February 14. The global body had reported that the early feedback indicated an improved spectator experience with fouls dropping to 13% in both the events, from a historical average of 32%.

“Even though I would argue we identified a problem, and found a viable solution, if the athletes don’t want it, fine, we drop it. But I don’t regret looking at that. I think that’s our job as the governing body,” said Ridgeon.

Reigning Olympic and world outdoor champion Miltiadis Tentoglou was one of the staunchest critics of the takeoff zone proposal.

“I consider long jump to be one of the hardest events because of the board and the accuracy you need,” Tentoglou told reporters. You need to run like a sprinter, to hit the board perfectly — this is the difficult part of the long jump. The jump itself is easy. The hard part is the run-up.

“So if they want to remove this, the long jump would be the easiest event. If that happens, I will not do long jump anymore. I will be a triple jumper,” said Tentoglou

Published on Dec 03, 2025