Analysis of men's 1000 m race-pattern in 1993 world sprint speed skate championships

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the characteristics of 1000 m race-patterns for an elite speed skaters at the World Sprint Championship 1993 in IKAHO, Japan. Twenty-eight skaters participated in men's 1000 m races were videotaped (60 fields/s) with five panning VTR cameras. Mean skating speed, skating-cycle frequency and-cycle length at twenty sections (about 50 m each) were measured. Skating speeds of both inner and outer starting lanes were quickly increased until they reached the maximal speed around 300 m marks, then slightly decreased around 700 m marks and rapidly fell down to the finish. There were close relationships between skating speeds in the second half of the races and finishing time. By using mean value of the rate of decline (%) in skating velocity defined as (1- (1^st lap time/2^nd lap time) x 100, race-pattern for all skaters were classified into two types, so that it should be suggested that small increase in skating-cycle frequency at 600 m marks is important to keep their skating speeds in the last stage of the races.