t-and-f: Lane Assignment and Reaction Time

[Roger Ruth]

Today's edition of the Vancouver edition of Globe and Mail includes an 
article that's interesting, but without enough information to know how 
well-founded is that interest.

It describes a study undertaken at the University of Alberta in which 
researchers examined reaction times for the 100m sprint and 110m 
hurdles at the 2004 Olympic Games and found that runners in the lanes 
closest to the starting pistol had significantly faster reaction times 
than those in lanes farther away. This effect was said to be especially 
strong for runners in lane one.

Unfortunately, the dimension of this difference is not given in this 
report, so whether it would affect an individual's measured time in 
these events cannot be determined. The article says that a report on 
the research, by Dave Collins and Alex Brown, is published in the June 
issue of Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise. If any of our 
subscribers has access to this journal, perhaps she or he can fill us 
in on the over-all effect of this difference in reaction times.