Abstract
Despite the existence of literature on the athletics hurdles event, no previous studies have examined the kinematic behavior of athletes during the race. The aims of the present research were (1) to compare the spatiotemporal parameters of elite and high-level hurdlers (men and women) in the approach run, hurdles-unit and run-in phases and (2) to relate these parameters to the 60 m end race results. Split times, step lengths, step widths, step times, contact times and flight times were calculated for the 60 m hurdlers (n = 110) who participated in the 44th Spanish Indoor Championship and in the 12th IAAF World Indoor Championship. Both men and women elite-level hurdlers obtained shorter split times than high-level hurdlers in the approach run (δ 0.14 ± 0.01 and 0.18 ± 0.02 s, respectively), the hurdles-unit (δ 0.11 ± 0.01 and 0.13 ± 0.01 s, respectively) and the run-in (δ 0.10 ± 0.01 and 0.20 ± 0.02 s, respectively) race phases. Elite-level men athletes also presented lower step lengths in the approach run phase (δ 0.01 ± 0.00 m), greater take-off distances (δ 0.10 ± 0.03 m) and shorter landing distances (δ 0.17 ± 0.05 m) than high-level athletes, although elite-level women hurdlers only showed longer landing step length (δ 0.07 ± 0.02 m) than high-level athletes. Finally, in the run-in phase, elite-level hurdlers had longer step lengths than high-level hurdlers (men: δ 0.09 ± 0.03 m; women: δ 0.11 ± 0.03 m). Step times, contact times and flight times were also different between both levels of performance in most of the race phases. Correlational analysis with the race result showed large (r > 0.5), very large (r > 0.7), or nearly perfect (r > 0.9) relationships for most of the mentioned kinematic parameters. These results indicate that elite-level athletes were faster than high-level in the three phases of the 60 m hurdles event, specifically in some new spatiotemporal parameters (e.g. step length in the run-in phase) as well as others already studied. Accordingly, coaches and athletes should implement their training programs to have an impact on these key variables.
Highlights
The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) included the 60 m hurdles since the first World Indoor Championship (Indianapolis, USA) in 1987
The temporal analysis in the hurdle event is usually completed with the hurdle flight times, there is a lack of relationship between hurdle clearance times and race performance according to Tsiokanos et al (2017)
The approach run phase was calculated from the starting gun to the contact on the ground after the first hurdle, the hurdle unit phase was recorded as the mean of the times between each hurdle and the run-in phase included the time from the contact after the last hurdle to the final race time (Brüggemann, 1990)
Summary
The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) included the 60 m hurdles since the first World Indoor Championship (Indianapolis, USA) in 1987. The positioning of the hurdles serves as a reference for the division of the event into the following phases (Brüggemann, 1990): approach run phase (from the starting line to the first hurdle), hurdle unit phase (race and clearance of the hurdles), and run-in phase (from the last hurdle to the finishing line). The temporal analysis in the hurdle event is usually completed with the hurdle flight times, there is a lack of relationship between hurdle clearance times and race performance according to Tsiokanos et al (2017). Pollitt et al (2018a,b) have studied the contact and flight times during the run-in phase in the 110 and 100 m hurdles event
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