Sprint (Athletics)

A characteristic feature of the sprint is the functioning of the body in the mode of creatine-phosphate alactate and anaerobic lactate modes of energy consumption. At short distances, the blood simply does not have time to complete a circulation cycle. The passage of blood through a large circle of blood circulation is 26 seconds, with the legs being the periphery of the circulatory system.

Sprint competitions are held at official competitions (World Championships, European Championships, Olympic Games), and are also included in the athletics all-around program. Track and field athletics is a complex sport that includes various types of disciplines. She is rightfully considered the queen of sports, not without reason, two of the three appeals in the motto “Faster, Higher, Stronger” can be considered without hesitation as athletics. Athletics formed the basis of the sports program of the first Olympic Games. Athletics managed to win their positions due to the simplicity, accessibility and, if you want, the naturalness of their competitive disciplines. This is one of the main and most popular sports.

Athletics was able to gain its popularity due to the fact that it does not require expensive equipment to practice. Due to this, athletics could become popular even in countries such as Asia, Africa and Latin America. It is in connection with the wide development, great popularity of this sport, its constantly progressing evolution that athletics gained recognition, in fact, around the world in the second half of the 20th century and was called the “Queen of Sports”. For many decades, no one doubted the legality of this high-profile title. Athletics really rules the sports world, it is loved and revered in the most remote corners of the planet.

60 meters

Official 60 meter races are held indoors in a direct section of the 200 meter distance or in a separate running segment of the track. Since the race lasts 6-9 seconds, a good starting reaction in this discipline is more important than in any other.

100 meters

It is held in summer stadiums on a direct stretch of a 400 meter track. It is considered one of the most prestigious disciplines, both in athletics and in sports in general.

200 meters

It is held at summer and winter (less often) stadiums. The distance includes the passage of one curve and then a straight section. In this regard, it requires certain skills of speed endurance and cornering techniques without reducing speed.

400 meters

It is held in summer and winter stadiums. The so-called long sprint . It requires speedy endurance and the ability to competently distribute forces over a distance.

Relays

Held at summer and winter stadiums. The official program includes 4 × 100 , 4 × 400 meters.

Custom distances

Non-standard sprint distances, as a rule, are 30, 50, 150, 300, 500 meters, a relay race of 4 × 200 m.

According to scientists, high-class athletes can achieve the highest running speeds on a distance of 50-60 meters. The athlete's task is to determine in which section of the distance - 100 or 200 meters - he will develop maximum speed. ^[2] .

At sprint distances of 200 and 400 meters (summer stadium), the central 3, 4, 5, 6th tracks of eight are considered the most profitable. 1 and 2 tracks are inconvenient due to the fact that the small radius of curvature prevents athletes from developing high speed in turns. Lines 7 and 8 are disadvantageous in that the athletes starting on them run for the first 150-200 meters ahead and cannot orient themselves in speed with other athletes. The most profitable lanes are distributed among the athletes who showed the highest results in the preliminary rounds. This is an additional incentive for showing high results in preliminary circles ^[3] .

Selection

Due to the fact that in the sprint disciplines, as a rule, a large number of participants take part (more than in any other track and field athletics discipline), the selection has to be done in three or even four circles (race, 1/4 finals, 1 / 2 finals, final).

Start and Run

In all sprint disciplines, the start is taken from a low position, from the starting blocks. In the distance, athletes run each on their own track, with the exception of the relay race 4 × 400 meters. At official IAAF competitions, the stadium must be equipped with an automatic time and photo finish system.

A fair wind can greatly facilitate the task. Therefore, in the sprint run up to 200 m in open stadiums, the tail component of the wind is taken into account. If it is more than 2 m / s (all-around 4 m / s), then the result shown by the athlete cannot be an official or personal record.

Falstart

On the “Start” command, sprinters should take a position in the starting blocks, on the “Attention” command, stop all movement and after the shot of the pistol start running. The IAAF Rules stipulate that an athlete’s reaction to a shot of a starting pistol cannot occur earlier than 1/10 second. If one of the athletes started moving earlier than 0.1 seconds after the shot, the judges may consider that one or more participants made a false start. If the starting complex is equipped with a false start detection system, then the basis for making such a decision is the testimony of the equipment, and the athlete cannot participate in the race even when they file an oral appeal.

Until January 1, 2010, one false start was allowed in one race, and it did not matter who made the first false start. The athlete (or athletes) who allowed him was shown a yellow card . For the second false start in the same race, the athlete who allowed him was shown a red card and removed from the start. From January 1, 2010, false start is not allowed (with the exception of sprint distances in the all-around - one false start is allowed there) - remove any athlete (or athletes) who has made a false start at least once. If a false start occurs due to a hardware failure, the judge shows a green card to the start participants.

The starting blocks of athletes can be equipped with a system that automatically determines the response time of the athlete by the interval between the shot of the starting pistol and the beginning of the movement of the foot in the block. Before the introduction of this system, false start was the subject of a subjective decision by the judges. Some athletes who were distinguished by an exceptional reaction (such, for example, was Archie Khan ), received a serious advantage over their rivals due to a quick start. ^[four]

In order to put athletes on equal footing, each pair of starting blocks is equipped with a speaker that transmits the sound of a starting pistol. Thus, the signal reaches the start in the same time, independent of the speed of sound and the position of the athlete on the track.

Photo Finish and Electronic Timing

To determine the order of arrival of athletes is usually used photo finish . For the first time, a photo finish (based on the photography technique) and electro-mechanical timing were used at the 1912 Olympics.

In 1928, a slow-motion technique was applied. ^{[5] The} revolution in combining photo finish and auto timing takes place at the 1932 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. Invented by Gustavus T. Kirby and embodied in Kodak Bell Lab's metal, the dual-lens camera, equipped with a digital electro-mechanical chronometer, became a model for other companies for decades before the advent of electronic devices. One lens of this camera shot at a speed of 126 frames per second on the film line of the finish line, the other shot a built-in electro-mechanical chronometer with rotating disks on which numerical marks were applied. The chronometer was started from a starting pistol ^[6] Despite all the technical innovations, these devices were not officially recognized as a source of official time and parish. They were only considered by judges as an additional source of information. For the first time, electronic timing systems along with manual time were applied in all types with a temporary standard at the Olympic Games in 1968 in Mexico City ^{[7] [8]} . Moreover, electronic time was recognized as official - but recorded as "manual" - with an accuracy of 1 tenth of a second. But the final official results obtained using the photo-finish system and auto-timing, with the accuracy adopted to this day up to the 1st hundredth of a second, have only become since 1972 - the Olympics in Munich ^[9]

The championship is determined by the surface of the body ( torso - with the exception of the arms, legs and head with neck) of the athlete, the first to cross the finish plane. The starting pistol of the judges is connected to the starting sensor of the electronic timing system. Modern equipment allows you to track the time dividing athletes with an accuracy of 1/10000 sec, but the final protocols and tables of records and best results include time, rounded up to 1/100 sec, and the order of arrival (place) is determined by the smallest value time of the participant in thousandths (ten thousandths) with equal values ​​of results up to hundredths of a second.

The image of the photo finish in the fully automatic timing system allows you to accurately determine the time that divided the athletes.