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Category

Athletics

Document Type

Paper

Abstract

This study investigated the gaze and step controls of one elite male hurdler when approaching hurdles at different heights. Across a 16 m runway, the participant performed three normal sprinting trials, and three hurdle running trials to clear a low, medium and high hurdle respectively. Gaze behaviour was captured using a mobile eye tracker that was mounted on the participant’s head and was filtered using a low-pass filter. In normal sprinting, the step length increased gradually from the first to eighth step. In the hurdle running trials, step length did not increase in the last step and fixations remained on the hurdle. The duration of fixations on the hurdle was lengthened by 21% and 44% in the middle and high hurdle trials, respectively, compared with the low hurdle trials. This pilot study provides foundational information on the interaction between gaze and hurdle running to clear hurdles of different heights that could potentially be optimized to improve performance in hurdling.

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