Matsuo said his study of Lewis showed that the sprint should be measured in three phases: the rapid “accelerating” stage at the start, the top-speed “intermediate” phase, and the last “slowdown” period. In fact, all runners, even current world record holder Usain Bolt of Jamaica, cannot maintain their top speed and slow down before finishing the 100 meters, he said. The other discovery was that Lewis’ pace slowed in the end after reaching a top speed, even though he appeared to accelerate toward the finish line, Matsuo said. Instead, they focused more on their pelvic movements to bring their legs forward. Japanese runners realized that “kicking the ground firmly” was not the way to run faster. The findings resulted in a drastic change in sprinters’ running method. But Lewis never really fully stretched his legs and did not kick all the way through the race.” “Japanese runners at the time were taught to make a full stretch of their knees and ‘kick’ the ground at every step to accelerate. “One discovery was about his sprint technique,” Matsuo said. sprinting legend Carl Lewis, who set a world record of 9.86 seconds at the Tokyo competition. Matsuo made two discoveries after analyzing the running style of U.S. He said the shift into higher gear for Japanese sprinters stemmed from the 1991 world championship in Tokyo. “The 20-year period for amassing know-how had great significance,” he said.Īkifumi Matsuo, a vital dynamics expert who was a professor at the National Institute of Fitness and Sports in Kanoya in Kagoshima Prefecture, has long studied velocity in the 100. Yamagata said his current national record of 9.95 seconds set on June 6 owed largely to the scientific studies. “Knowledge had accumulated during the period.” “Many runners tried to finish the 100 in under 10 seconds for 20 years until Kiryu broke the record,” said Ryota Yamagata, one of the top Japanese sprinters in the event. With more Japanese now achieving that feat, much attention was focused on the marquee event at the all-Japan track and field championship that kicked off on June 24. Yoshihide Kiryu in 2017 broke that mark and became the first Japanese sprinter to run 100 meters in under 10 seconds. The analyses on velocity and technique combined with the tireless efforts by the sprinters and their coaches have led to three national records in the event over the past four years.įor 19 years, Koji Ito’s time of 10.00 seconds in 1998 stood as the Japanese record for the 100. Nearly two decades of scientific studies have helped Japanese runners shave tiny fractions of a second off their times and finally break the 10-second barrier in the 100-meter sprint.
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