Track standout Devon Allen is making a comeback to football this summer after a five-year sabbatical. But first, he needed to take care of some business on the track. Allen, a three-time U.S. national champion and two-time Olympian, only needed a solid performance at the World Athletics Championships to complete a trifecta of outstanding achievements.
In contrast, he was eliminated by a thousandth of a second, and he is still in disbelief over it. Allen, who was competing in the finals of the 110-meter hurdles, got off to a flying start in the most crucial competition of his track season and one of the most crucial of his successful career. Allen’s reaction time to the starting gun was 0.099 seconds.
The reaction time cutoff, however, is one-tenth of a second, or 0.1 seconds. Allen was so fast that he was 0.001 seconds early. Basically, he was moving too quickly to be allowed. It didn’t count at all for the same reason.
