Short-Distance Running: Everything for You to Know

Also known as sprint, short-distance running is represented by races at distances no more than 400 meters. 100-meter races are characterized by runners’ intentions to gather a maximum speed at a starting stage and up to 60-80 meters with a following attempt to preserve this speed up to the finishing line. When it comes to 400-meter distance, however, it is noted that athletes lose their speed with every passing 100 meters.

Short-distance running requires high-speed qualities and coordinating abilities. Running training is good for those who plan to deal with jumps, throws, and middle-distance running. In addition, it is of key importance in many sporting games.

Main Rules

There are not so many rules, but they are the same for all the short-running distances. Thus, an athlete may not leave his/her running track or place his/her foot on the left constraint line. If an athlete violates this rule, he/she is disqualified.

The foot supports are necessary to provide athletes with a firm footing at the start. Particular requirements are applied to each of them. Thus, the front support should be fixed at a 45-55-degree angle, while an angle of 70-80 degrees is suitable for the back support. The supports should be placed on a distance of 15 cm (a width) between them.

Athletes are allowed to use their own foot supports provided they meet the requirements designed by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). After the command “Get set”, athletes’ both feet should be in contact with these supports.

Technique

Every short-distance competition of no more than 400 meters long begins from a crouch start. Athletes’ starting positions depend on peculiarities of their constitution. Nowadays, there can be narrow, medium, and wide starting positions. With this, the narrow and medium starting positions are more preferred nowadays.

Peculiarities of a crouch start are the following. An athlete places his/her switch foot on the front foot support, and the other foot – on the back one. It is necessary to pay attention to the fact that the foot should slightly touch the ground with its toes.

The knee of the back leg should be placed on the ground close to the starting line. Hands are straight and the eyes look down. Following the command “Get set”, an athlete should raise his/her waist in such a manner to distribute the body weight equally among four supporting points i.e. hands and legs. After a starting shot, an athlete takes off with the feet from the foot supporters and takes the hands away from the ground. A race has begun!

As for a starting stage of a race, athletes tend to significantly bend their bodies forward to gradually increase step length and overall speed. Over the rest of the distance, while the speed has been gathered, the same step length and overall speed are found.

As for a running step, it consists of three consecutive stages:

• repulsion phase;
• flight phase;
• support phase.

Short-distance runners tend to have longer steps. Thus, men of 1.80 meters high can impress with a step length of about 2.30 meters, while this distance is 2.10 meters for women of 1.70 meters high. This distance depends usually on the power an athlete exercises during a repulsion phase.

Experienced runners try to minimize vertical fluctuations of their bodies. Thus, hands must do all their best to result in help for legs movements. The hands should be bent in elbows; they are moving forward. Despite a rather high speed, athletes should stay relaxed. All the tensions are canceled while in a flight phase.

Experienced runners manage to achieve approximately 95% of their maximum speed within the first 25-30 meters, while it takes 50-80 meters for them to gather their maximum indicator. When it comes to the last 7-8 steps of a race, their length keeps increasing. However, the fact that a step frequency decreases prevents athletes from increasing their speed close to the finishing line.

In general, a running technique is the same for 400, 200, and 100-meter races. The only differences refer to entering the curves. While entering a curve in a sprinting distance, it is necessary to bend the body to the left to minimize the effect of the centripetal force. This additional requirement will result in a slightly lower speed. That is why it is necessary to enter a curve as close to the left edge of the track as possible. It is proven that athletes tend to run about 0.2 seconds slower when in curves then when they are on a straight distance.

Tactics

When it comes to short-distance running, tactics do not play such a crucial role. The only requirement refers to keeping an eye on a leader and trying to conquer one of the leading positions at the start.

History

Short-distance running was extremely popular in ancient times, which can be supported by numerous drawings and written findings. Even the first Olympic Games witnessed short-distance running competitions. Those athletes needed to overcome a distance of a bit more than 190 meters. In a while, they increased the distance. In addition, athletes start their races by taking off primitive foot supports that were made of a stone footstep.

As for the modern Olympic Games, short-distance races were obligatory pats of athletics programs. It was in 1888 when an American athlete started a race from a crouch start. The foot supports, however, were introduced only in 1930.