Title
Deciding when to start in 100-m sprints at Athletic World Championships
Abstract
In sprint athletics, the reaction time (RT; the time from the start signal to running onset) is one of the important factors determining performance. As RT is shorter, performance (i.e., total time) would be better. However, when RT is less than or equal to 100 ms, it is considered the premature start under the current regulations, leading to disqualification. Therefore, athletes need to decide on reaction strategy with the trade-off between gain (i.e., benefits for performance) and loss (i.e., disqualification). We examined how the level of advance in competition rounds (heats, semifinals, and finals) would affect RTs in the men's 100-m races at the four World Championships in Athletics held between 2011 and 2017. Results showed that the RTs in semifinals were the shortest among three competition rounds. We interpreted the results in terms of the optimization of energic costs on RT selection toward the final and/or the particular psychological states imposed by the demand level of performance in the final round.
Year
DOI
Venue
2020
10.1109/KST48564.2020.9059442
2020 12th International Conference on Knowledge and Smart Technology (KST)
Keywords
DocType
ISSN
sprint athletics,reaction time,sensorimotor decision-making under risk,contextual modulation
Conference
2374-314X
ISBN
Citations 
PageRank 
978-1-7281-4467-2
0
0.34
References 
Authors
0
5
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Kae Mukai100.34
Ryoji Onagawa200.34
Takumi Tanaka300.68
Katsumi Watanabe41816.97
Kazutoshi Kudo5103.16