Performance and micro-pacing strategies in sit para-biathlon

Figures & data

Figure 1. Depiction of the para-biathlon course profile (Panel A: Long-distance race, 2.5 km loop; Panel B: Middle-distance race and Sprint race, 2 km loop without U4 and with D2 replaced by D2alt) with the shooting range and penalty loop sections removed for analyses of skiing pacing strategy.

Notes: Light grey = Uphill; Dark grey = downhill; Moderate grey = flat; White = “other” sections not included in the analyses. U1 = Uphill Section 1, U2 = Uphill Section 2 etc.; D = Downhill; F = Flat.

Table 1. Total Race Time and the proportional contributions of total skiing time, penalty time and shooting time for all race formats.

	Total Race Time	Mean skiing speed (m·s^−1)	Total Skiing Time	Penalty Time	Shooting Time
Sprint	22 min 13 s ±1 min 48 s	5.3 ± 0.2	86 ± 5%	5 ± 4%	9 ± 1%
Middle-distance	36 min 35 s ±2 min 10 s	5.2 ± 0.2	86 ± 3%	4 ± 3%	11 ± 1%#
Long-distance	56 min 30 s ±6 min 39 s	4.8 ± 0.3*	80 ± 6%	13 ± 6%*	8 ± 2%

Mean ± SD; * = different to all other race formats (p < 0.05); ^# = different to Long-distance only (p < 0.05).

Figure 2. Heatmap representing the summary of the Pearson correlation coefficients between Section Skiing Time (SST) and Total Skiing Time (TST) as well as between Section Skiing Time (SST) and Total Race Time (TRT) of all laps for all three races.

Notes: TST: Total Skiing Time; TRT: Total Race Time; (*) p-value <0.05, (**) p-value <0.01, (***) p-value <0.001). Due to the course distance difference, D2 corresponds to D2alt in the Middle-distance or Sprint races and U4 was not included. U1 = Uphill Section 1, U2 = Uphill Section 2 etc.; D = Downhill; F = Flat.

Figure 3. Altitude and “cluster” locations (in green shaded area) for each lap of the Long-distance (Panel A), Middle-distance and Sprint races (Panel B). The associated distance and time gained by the fastest athlete over the slowest athlete is displayed for each cluster as well as the total time gain for the entire lap.

Notes: Laps where no clusters were found were excluded.

Figure 4. Elevation (Panel A), Statistical parametric mapping (Spm{t}) curve (Panel B) for U6 on lap 2 of the Long-distance race. The shaded area on the SPM{t} curve shows the course location where a significant relationship exists between Total Skiing Time (TST) and instantaneous skiing speed (at 138–146 m). *p < 0.05.