Temporal and Spatial Characteristics of Pacing Strategy in Elite Women’s 400 Meters Hurdles Athletes

Abstract

The main objective of the study was to assess the pacing strategy of running 400 m hurdles of the world-level female athletes over the past 40 years based on the functional asymmetry -temporal and spatial characteristics. The data were collected from 1983 to 2019 using the review of scientific literature. Over the 35 years of the study, 37 top-level competitions with 283 finalists-competitors were included. The analysis of the 400 m hurdle covered mainly spatial and temporal factors of the run, related to those technical skills, the level of motor skills, and somatic structure. In addition to the basic statistics, the ANOVA analysis of variance, regression analysis, Pearson correlation, the principal component analysis (PCA), and Kaiser’s criterion was used for the multivariate analysis. The final result in the 400 mH run is determined not by the simple sum of the individual temporal and/or spatial characteristics of the run (the number of steps, the type of attacking leg, but their interaction in the area of functional asymmetry. The decisive factor in the 400 mH run strategy is the second curve, where the emphasis is on the optimal setting of the stride pattern in the context of minimizing the loss of running speed. Additionally, the application of multidimensional statistical methods is a valuable tool that allows to significantly deepen the interpretation of the obtained results, and thus optimize a strategy for a 400 mH run.