Investigating the Mechanics of the 100 Metre Sprint

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Investigating the Mechanics of the 100 Metre Sprint

In this assignment, I will be investigating the way in which an athlete run a race of 100 metre and also I will look at other different possibilities such as when an athlete accelerate or decelerate during the race.

The course is a track of 100 metres in length and I decided that I would not take into account the wind variation in this model because of lack of information. So therefore I assume that there is light wind that will not affect the time.

Before my research I always thought that sprinters run as fast as they can for the whole distance of the race. But in my researches using the Internet and books, I found out that sprinting is a skilful activity just like football kicking and tennis. Such activity must be practised constantly to retain or improve an athlete's level of ability.

Currently the world record time of the 100-meter race is 9.79 seconds produced by Maurice Greene. I was able to work out his average speed in the following way:

Average speed= 100 = 10.21 m/s-1

9.79

The 100m are a very intense and technical race. Initially the athlete should concentrate totally on his starting technique, which he has fine-tuned in training. Irrespective of the lane or adversaries, he now focuses on a smooth acceleration towards attaining his maximum speed. Once he has attained his top speed, he now relaxes totally in order to maintain his speed with the least amount of unnecessary interaction from muscles or parts of the body not being used for sprinting. The finish also requires some though because a centimetre gained by a correct finishing technique can win a race, a positive and active forward lean can help to achieve that.

NB: Any diagrams within my assignment are not drawn into scale.

Model 1: (sources = www.hypertextbook.com, encyclopaedia of athletics

and Brian Mackenzie- UK athletics senior coach)

* Total time 9.79 seconds

* Total distance of 100 metres
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* No air resistance

* Straight track field

* Athlete starts at rest

For this model, I will examine Maurice Greene's 100-metre race.

This table shows Maurice Greene's split time and speed in 10 metres interval.

Distance

(m)

Time

(s)

Speed

(m/s)

0

0.00

0.00

10

.71

8.71

20

2.75

0.47

30

3.67

1.14

40

4.55

1.50

50

5.42

1.67

60

6.27

1.80

70
...

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