Starter flap (sport)
The starter flap is a piece of sports equipment that is used to signal the start signal in running sports instead of a starter pistol .
It is used for the simultaneous acoustic and optical signaling of the start. The starter flap consists of two boards which are connected at one end by a hinge and are provided with handles so that they can be held with both hands and easily opened or slammed shut. As a rule, color-contrasting signal boards are also attached to the boards in order to be able to clearly identify the position of the wings to one another even at a distance of up to a few hundred meters.
At the start, the flap is stretched out over the head with the command "On your seats". With the command “Done”, the flap is half closed so that both halves are in a V-shape to one another. With or instead of the command “Go”, the halves are knocked together with a bang. In particular, when the starter is away from the timekeepers, the timekeepers must start the clocks in response to the optical signal, while the athletes start on the acoustic signal. Otherwise incorrect measurements will occur due to the speed of sound (approx. 0.3 seconds at 100 meters). The inventor is the sports teacher Rudolf Herrmann, born in Zwickau in 1914.
