A study on foot support of handbike in paratriathlon

Abstract

This research is related to the tools used in the paratriathlon, which are expected to win medals at the Tokyo Paralympic games. The paratriathlon is a sport where strategy and experience are greatly influenced by the characteristics of the activities performed throughout the three competition events. Moreover, since many tools are used in the game, they are considered part of the competition. This time, we focused on the development of equipment related to the Bike event (hand bike), which accounts for about 50% of the competition time and has a major impact on winning and losing. Foot placement is very important for athletes with lower limb motor dysfunction. Therefore, a foot support that can be operated as much as possible using the entire sole is desired. However, if the design change makes it possible to operate using the entire sole, the shape of the foot support (Proto-type: Pt) may increase the air resistance, because the front projection area increases. Therefore, we have developed a footrest that minimizes the forward projection area while obtaining stable operability. In this study, we measured the air resistance of the Conventional-type (Ct) and the Pt equipment to better enable them to be operated with the entire sole. We found that the drag of the Pt was approximately 2.5 times the drag of the Ct.