Indoor Athletics: First-Ever Bio-mechanics Research Report Released

At last year’s IAAF World Indoor Championships, indoor athletics were magnified with a high-focus lens in Birmingham, where all the action was snapped by twenty-eight high speed cameras as part of the largest-scale biomechanics research ever conducted at such championships.

After examination of the performances of one hundred and sixty one (161) athletes across thirteen (13) events, the IAAF has released the results of the enterprising project in forensic detail.

Lead researcher and Head of Biomechanics at the Carnegie School of Sport, Leeds Beckett University, Dr Athanassios Bissas exclaimed about the London study being exceptionally accepted world-wide. He pinned his expectations about this study to have similar influence in the athletic-world.He further remarked about deploying of 3D motion mechanisms for analysing of important events after having learned from the experiences in London 2017. According to him, those techniques are now in a refined shape and are simultaneously, remarkable as well as fascinating, assuring one that these findings will once again inject a wave of excitement among the athletes.

From the London championships, downloading of 38 reports in two hundred and four countries was recorded. These reports triggered interest and expanded knowledge ensuing informed coaches, athletes and spectators proving that the application of science is of immense importance when it comes to capturing data at such events.

The highlights of the afore-mentioned research can be summarized in bullet-points as illustrated below: 

• It is the first-ever project and only one of its kind to capture in 3D mechanism, the mechanics of the sprint start for the 60m sprinters and hurdlers during a competition and it uses 11 high-speed cameras.

• It is the first project to snap in detail the first 10m of the 60m finals, which unveiled the fact that 5 of the 6 medals were decided within the first 10 metres (which accounts for almost 30% of the total time). After being outside the top 3 at the 10-metre mark, only Marie-Josée Ta Lou claimed a medal- a silver one.

• The measurements of the sprinters’ exit times from the starting blocks revealed that the average time was identical for female as well as male sprinters: 0.5 seconds.

• During the pole vault competitions, advanced analysis of the approach phase is a key feature.

• Unmatchable analysis of men’s high jump by dissecting the performance into 31 different biomechanical variables is a unique aspect of this research.

This is a study is impetus for opening up a new gate-way to an era of innovation and technology as it plays a major role in pursuit of a healthy athletic culture.

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