Abstract
Background: 1,500 m running has long been a blue ribbon event of track championship racing. The eventual medalists employ common tactical behaviors such as a fast sustained pace from the start (gun-to-tape), or, slow initial laps that precede a precisely timed race kick. Before the kick, there are positional changes caused by surging, that can go uncharacterized. The inter-relationship of surge events, tactical positioning, and kick execution may have important implications for eventual medal winning outcomes and require further definition.Methods: In a randomized order, three middle-distance running experts were provided publically available video (YouTube) of 16 men's 1,500 m championship races across, European, World and Olympic championships. Each expert determined the occurrence of surges (defined as any point in the 1,500 m after the first 300 m where an athlete repositions by ≥3 places; or noticeably dictates a raise in the pace from the front) and the race kick. Following a second level verification of expert observations, tactical behaviors (quantity and distance marker within each race) mean distance from the finish were compared between fast (≤3:34.00, n = 5), medium (>3:34.00– ≤3:41.99, n = 7) and slow (≥3:42.00, n = 4) race categories.Results: Before the race kick, there were more surges in slow (5 ± 1.7, mean ±90% confidence limits) vs. fast races (1 ± 0.4, very large difference, very likely). The final surge before the race kick occurred earlier in fast (704 ± 133 m from the finish) vs. medium (427 ± 83 m, large difference, most likely), and slow races (370 ± 137 m, large difference, most likely). At initiation of the race kick in fast races, large positional differences were found between eventual gold (2 ± 1.2; likely) and silver (2.2 ± 1.6; likely) vs. bronze medalists (4.4 ± 1.2). In slow races, positional differences were unclear between eventual gold (4.3 ± 4.7), silver (4.8 ± 4.8) and bronze medalists (5.3 ± 1.5). Regardless of category, the race kick occurred on the last lap, with unclear differences between fast 244 ± 92 m medium 243 ± 56 m and slow 236 ± 142 m races.Conclusions: Presenting tactical behaviors by race categorization (slow, medium, fast race times), provides a novel understanding of the nuance of racing tactics. The present findings highlight the importance of considering within race athlete decision making across multiple-race scenarios during championship preparation.
Highlights
With sports federation funding primarily determined by medal outcomes, providing further resolution on the medalists underpinning tactical behavior is of critical performance interest for coaches, athletes and sport performance staff
There will be other athletes who execute their kick after this point, these are tactical responses to the first athlete who initiated the race kick (Renfree et al, 2015; Hettinga et al, 2017; Konings and Hettinga, 2018), these instances will be referred to as the “athlete kick.”
At initiation of the race kick, eventual medalists were in higher race positions in fast races, than in slow paced races
Summary
It is well-established across the middle-distance running literature that the final surge, more commonly known as the finishing kick, differentiates medalists in championship racing of the 1,500 m (Thiel et al, 2012; Mytton et al, 2015; Aragón et al, 2016; Casado and Renfree, 2018; Hanley et al, 2018). 1,500 m championship racing is akin to a game of chess, whereby an athlete must jostle for a favorable tactical position, ready to execute the “kick” at the opportune moment.The current literature, whilst highlighting the concept of the “race kick” in the 1,500 m, is limited in methodology in several areas. Jostling for position in the early phases of the race is often overlooked and may require an element of surging that has bioenergetic consequences on an athlete’s ability to kick (Fukuba and Whipp, 1999; Jones and Whipp, 2002). These mid-race surges before the kick (i.e., up to and including the final surge), position the athlete to strike and are a critical piece of tactical execution (Hanley et al, 2018). With sports federation funding primarily determined by medal outcomes, providing further resolution on the medalists underpinning tactical behavior is of critical performance interest for coaches, athletes and sport performance staff
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