Coe happy with pacemaking light technology
WORLD Athletics president Sebastian Coe has said he embraced new track technology that features pacemaking lights, a system used to great effect in two stunning world records last week.
Ugandan Joshua Cheptegei (men’s 10,000m) and Ethiopia’s Letesenbet Gidey (women’s 5,000m) blew two longstanding records apart in alencia.
Both athletics had a team of metronomic pacemakers around them who utilised Wavelight technology a trackside visual time guidance system which lights up to indicate the world record pace.
“You have to innovate, there’s no question about that,” Coe said in Gdynia, Poland, ahead of Saturday’s world half-marathon races.
While acknowledging there was a balance to be struck, Coe argued that technological advances were paramount in attracting new audiences.
“You need to create a connection and the key connection is understanding,” said the twotime Olympic 1500m gold medal winner for Britain, who set 12 world records in his career.
“I think it’s really important that we use innovation so that we further and foster understanding.
“Pace lights I have no problem with. Our one-day meetings are about entertainment and I think Wavelight that allows people in the stadium, people on television, to understand a little bit more about the incredible talent, the incredible speeds our competitors are running at actually lends to the type of understanding I want.”
Coe also argued that pacemakers had been around for decades, notably citing Roger Bannister’s first subfour-minute mile as a “pacemade event”.