Usage of past perfect - 'had left'
Hello, everyone,
An interesting incident related to fairness in sports occurred during the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. The men’s 100-metre sprint that year is well remembered by Canadians as the race in which Canadian sprinter Donovan Bailey won gold. . . . Olympics officials had previously decided that no one’s reaction time is ever less than one-tenth of one second, so any runner beginning the race beyond the first one-tenth of one second must have “anticipated” the starter gun. Such anticipation is against the rules because it usually arises when a runner is late getting into position, thereby delaying the race and controlling, to his or her advantage, just when the starter gun will sound. Christie had left the starting block just 0.086 seconds after the gun was fired.
* source; https://books.google.co.kr/books?id=QDsiAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT135&lpg=PT135&dq=%22Olympics+officials+had+previously+decided+that+no+one%E2%80%99s+reaction+time+is+ever+less%22&source=bl&ots=I9LkLbSLcd&sig=ACfU3U0vSt5RNU2l-sLcjQa8JnIIseQyAQ&hl=ko&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiQv6yA9KzvAhXFdXAKHfiXDaUQ6AEwAHoECAUQAw#v=onepage&q=%22Olympics%20officials%20had%20previously%20decided%20that%20no%20one%E2%80%99s%20reaction%20time%20is%20ever%20less%22&f=false
My question is about the usage of past perfect - had left in above sentence. While in a men’s 100-metre sprint the gun's firing is always considered the first event and the runner's leaving starting block the second event, the writer wrote, "Christie had left the starting block just 0.086 seconds after the gun was fired."
I assume the reason he intentionally used past perfect tenses had left with establishing a past reference point in time(after) clause - was fired might be that the past perfect tenses usually carry an implication that something has happened before or after, that is to say, the runner's preparing to leave starting block has already happened before the gun's firing.
Will appreciate if you kindly correct my mistake which I'm missing.
Best RGDS,
Top answer
deepcosmos Hello, everyone, An interesting incident related to fairness in sports occurred during the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. The men’s 100-metre sprint that year is well remembered by Canadians as the race in which Canadian sprinter Donovan Bailey won gold. .
- deepcosmos Hello, everyone, An interesting incident related to fairness in sports occurred during the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta.
- The men’s 100-metre sprint that year is well remembered by Canadians as the race in which Canadian sprinter Donovan Bailey won gold.
- .
- Olympics officials had previously decided that no one’s reaction time is ever less than one-tenth of one second, so any runner beginning the race beyond the first one-tenth of one second must have “anticipated” the starter gun.
- Such anticipation is against the rules because it usually arises when a runner is late getting into position, thereby delaying the race and controlling, to his or her advantage, just when the starter gun will sound.
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deepcosmosHello, everyone,
An interesting incident related to fairness in sports occurred during the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. The men’s 100-metre sprint that year is well remembered by Canadians as the race in which Canadian sprinter Donovan Bailey won gold. . . . Olympics officials had previously decided that no one’s reaction time is ever less
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