Accuracy of global positioning system (GPS) device and video in athletics sprint racing analysis

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to compare the accuracy of 3 devices for measuring 100m athletics sprint race timings at different distance intervals and to identify the practicality of each method to obtain race data. The methods used were obtaining data from a Global Positioning System (GPS) device (VX Sport, Wellington, New Zealand), a radar gun (Stalker ATS 2 Applied concepts, Dallas, TX, USA), and the 2D video analysis technique with a high-speed camera (Panasonic HC-V520, Panasonic, Kadoma, Osaka, Japan) to record the videos and processed through Dartfish 10 (Dartfish, Fribourg, Switzerland). The reference method used was timing gates (TT Wireless Speedlight, Swift Performance Equipment, Australia). Data were simultaneously collected across the 4 methods. Each method has been tested in previous literature but only at short distances (3m-40m) and the interest here is to evaluate the accuracy of the methods in obtaining race data for longer distances (100m). Participants (N=14) were well-trained athletes, who can run 100m below 13.5s and train at least 3 times a week, and their ages range from 20 to 28 years old. From the statistical analysis, it can be concluded that using video analysis has accuracy that is comparable to the timing gates since at least 80% of the data values fall within the limits of maximal acceptable differences (±0.1s). The GPS and radar gun showed systematically higher values than the timing gates. The GPS and radar gun tend to show higher accuracy at slower speeds, especially during the acceleration phase of the run.