Influence of starting position on finishing position in World Cup 500 m short track speed skating

Abstract

Top short track speed skaters and their coaches have suspected that starting positions influence finishing positions, especially in the 500 m racing distance. The objective of this study was to examine systematically the influence of starting position on finishing position in 500 m short track speed skating. The data analysed included results from World Cup 500 m races ranging from the 1999-2000 season through to the end of the 2003-2004 season. All 500 m men's and women's races with four skaters starting and finishing (preliminaries, heats, quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals) were included in the data set. The association between starting position and finishing position was examined using Kendall's tau. Results show that for both sexes, there is a significant positive correlation between starting position and finishing position (P<0.001). This effect is generally more pronounced in semi-finals and finals than it is in preliminaries, heats and quarter-finals. Strategies to counter this inequity are proposed, drawing upon similar experiences in other sports.

Pacing Behavior and Tactical Positioning in 1500-m Short-Track Speed Skating

“…[14][15][16] Results showed that a starting position closest to the inside of the track (inside lane) was positively correlated with the final-ranking in 500 m short-track competitions, indicating better chances of winning the race when starting in the inside lane. 14,15 The importance of the start-position seemed to decrease in 1000 m and 1500 m short-track races as no correlations were reported here between starting lane and finalranking. 15 These results might be an indication of a more tactical approach to the race when distance increases.…”

“…14,15 In all 1500 m short-track races the winner was the athlete who first passed the finish line after 13.5 laps, where the distance of a short-track oval is 111.12m.…”

Performance Characteristics of Long-Track Speed Skaters: A Literature Review

“…While tactics in shorttrack speed skating are quite complex due to the role of competitors [53,54], they are more straight forward in long-track speed skating, a time trial sport. The tactics involved can be mostly identified with pacing: how to distribute available energy over the race to perform maximally.…”

Relationship between starting and finishing position in World Cup BMX racing

“…The duration of BMX cycling races have been recorded between 30 s to 50 s (Cowell et al 2012) and therefore the sport is considered predominantly as a sprint type event (Zabala et al 2008). The importance of the start in sprint type events has been reported previously in a number of sports including: speed skating (Maw et al 2006;Muehlbauer 2010;Muehlbauer & Schindler 2011) and 100m, 200m and 110m hurdles in athletics (Pilianidis et al 2012). …”