This post on the BBC Sports website caught my eye. This is very interesting and I believe useful information. It has always been my contention that American middle distance and distance runners do not train the way they have to race. In order to do that you have to know how races are won and conversely lost at the world class level. This type of information can help. I am working with a company that has developed a more sophisticated monitoring system that can provide more detailed information, especially in multidirectional sports. The goal is to train for the game or the race.
Here’s an excerpt of the article:
How Olympic Finals Were Won or Lost
By Mark Butler
BBC Sport’s athletics statistician takes a look at the numbers behind the big races
If you are a casual runner testing your fitness, try measuring out 100 metres and see how quickly you can cover that distance.
Then compare your result with the following figures: 15.4seconds for men and 17.3 for women.
For many fit people, these might not seem to be tough targets and of course are far from the current world records of 9.69 and 10.49.
But consider that these were the slowest 100m sections covered in the respective Olympic 1500m finals last summer.
Every athlete in both those races ran 14 further 100m stretches faster than those times, and without a break!
These figures were obtained from a revolutionary timing system, where all distance running athletes each wore a tiny transponder on the inside of their front bib number.
Each time the runner passed over the 100m, 200m, 300m or 400m point on the track, his or her time was registered.
Therefore in the men’s 10,000m with 35 finishers, some 3,500 separate times were recorded.
Discuss entry