One of the "engines" episodes mentioned means ancient Greeks made starting of foor races
fair. The "aphetes" = starter, operated a "hyslex" = starting gate" which was a clever device
which used same mechanism as a catapult to whip the starting rope barrier out of the way
of the runners, who had to have both feet in a shallow gutter called "balbis". But the site
says there was a manhole for the starter. I couldn't figure out why that was necessary.
Can you?
http://ist-socrates.berkeley.edu/~cls180/week3/menu3.html

I purely guessing, Bill, but I hypothesise one of two reasons:-

1) He needed his eyes to be down at ground level so that he could see for certain that no one was stepping over the line before the start:

2) The catapult mechanism was so vicious that he needed to be in a protected place, so that it didn't do him irreparable damage.

Another URL:http://ist-socrates.berkeley.edu/~clscs275/Games folder/basis.htm