Abstract
This research aimed to determine whether: (1) shoe-worn magnetic and inertial sensors can be used to detect hurdle clearance and identify the leading leg in 400-m hurdles, and (2) to provide an analysis of the hurdlers’ spatiotemporal parameters in the intervals defined by the hurdles’ position. The data set is composed of MIMU recordings of 15 athletes in a competitive environment. The results show that the method based on the duration of the flight phase was able to detect hurdle clearance and identify the leading leg with 100% accuracy. Moreover, by combining the swing phase duration with the orientation of the foot, we achieved, in unipedal configuration, 100% accuracy in hurdle clearance detection, and 99.7% accuracy in the identification of the leading leg. Finally, this study provides statistical evidence that contact time significantly increases, while speed and step frequency significantly decrease with time during 400 m hurdle races.
Highlights
The last decade has seen a growing trend towards magnetic inertial measurement units (MIMU)-based studies in track and field races, with the majority focusing on sprint distances
Such collection led to 300 Hurdle clearance (HC) for the evaluation in unipedal configuration and 150 HC for the assessment of bipedal configuration
This study showed that foot-worn inertial and magnetic sensors, combined with magnets bars, can be used to detect hurdle clearing events in 400-m hurdle
Summary
The last decade has seen a growing trend towards magnetic inertial measurement units (MIMU)-based studies in track and field races, with the majority focusing on sprint distances. These studies differ in terms of sensor configuration, sensor location, and type of parameter measured [1]. The authors offered no explanation about the method employed to detect the time point of hurdle clearance (HC) or how they measured the parameters above. The authors in [13] used inertial measurement units (IMU) to evaluate the kinematics of the hurdlers’ upper limbs and reported the linear velocities and the trajectory of the segments during hurdle clearance. Little research has been performed on 400-m hurdles [14], and no wearable system has been proposed to detect HC and identify the leading leg (LL), i.e., the leg attacking the hurdle
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