At the European Championships Munich 2022, 800-meter runner Christina Hering will be in the final on Saturday (8:15 PM). The 27-year-old qualified for the final run after finishing fourth in her semifinal in 2:00.86 minutes. On her way there, she was accompanied by the Chair of Performance Analysis and Sports Informatics of Prof. Dr. Martin Lames, which provides sports science support for the eight-time German champion.
"When running becomes a research object, the TU Munich is there. Just a few hundred meters from the Olympic Stadium, high-tech is being pursued," reads the beginning of a ZDF film by editor Ella Poulhalec, which was broadcast on Friday, August 19, as part of the women's 800m heats at the European Championships. It features a sports science performance diagnostic with former TUM student Hering, which was conducted by Prof. Lames and his team at the beginning of July on the athletics track of the Bavarian Olympic Training Center in the Olympic Park.
The goal of this diagnostic procedure is to analyze the track and field athlete's running performance and technique and use the real-time results to improve them together with her coaches from LG Stadtwerke München and the German Athletics Association.
"We use GPS to track how the running speed develops so that we know better where fatigue has set in," Prof. Lames explained in the TV interview. "Using video analysis, we can check body angles to see if fatigue has also affected running technique."
IMUs (Inertial Measurement Units) attached to Hering's shoes are used to measure ground contact times. The longer the foot stays on the ground, the greater the fatigue. In addition, the GPS with a sensor on her back measures speed down to the stride, which helps determine running consistency, that is, how economically and evenly Herring runs on the track.
"I have a feeling for it, of course, and I also know that you have to focus more on your running style when it gets strenuous," Hering said. "That's why it's exciting for me, of course, to have correct values available."
The results of the diagnostics were then analyzed and discussed in detail with Hering, who completed her bachelor's degree in sports science and her master's degree in TUM business administration at the Technical University of Munich, in the sprint hallway of the new TUM campus in the Olympic Park. Hering can imagine "that you might be able to react to it even better if you have the data available a bit faster in training."
However, she has always been "fascinated by winning rather than running a super fast time," explains the 1.87-meter runner in the ZDF report. At the European Championships, it will definitely be about winning in the final of the 800 meters on Saturday. And who knows, maybe she will be able to improve her current personal best of 1:59.41 minutes in the 800 meters.
To the film in the ZDF-Mediathek
To the homepage of the Chair of Performance Analysis and Sports Informatics
Contact:
Prof. Dr. Martin Lames
Chair of Performance Analysis and Sports Informatics
Georg-Brauchle-Ring 60/62
80992 München
phone: 089 289 24500
e-mail: Martin.Lames(at)tum.de
Text: Romy Schwaiger
Screenshots: ZDF