THE TECHNICAL ANALYSIS OF THE ASIAN TOP DISABLED SPRINTER -CHAN SING CHUNG

Abstract

INTRODUCTION Chan Sing Chung is a Hong Kong elite disabled sprinter with Cerebral Palsy. He achieved three gold medals in 100m, 200m and 400m sprints in 1994 FESPIC and a British honour (MBE) was granted to Chan recently for his particular achievement. His best result of 100m is 12.05s which is c10se to the world record of 11.75s. In order to help him to improve his technique and break the world record, high speed video camera was used to film his performance during his training sessions and provide technical analysis to his coach. METHOD Two video cameras with a frequency of 50Hz and shutter speed of 1/500s were situated at the side of the track and 30m apart. One camera was opposite the start and the other was opposite the 30m point. Three trial runs were filmed and the motion analysed for the first 5m and the last 6m (27m to 33m) of the sprint. The video material were processed by Peak Performance System and the data was compared with existing data from two Hong Kong elite able-bodied sprinters, Wong Man Long and Ku Wai Ming. CONCLUSIONS Chan's start technique is quite good except the length of the first stride. Also, the supporting time of his two legs was comparatively long. In addition, Chan's pawing technique at touchdown was not good enough From the data, we observed that there was no obvious difference in technique between both legs This is unusual in disabled sprinters. This may be due to the technique of the normal leg (Ieft) being affected by the disabled leg.