Almost everything that moved in the Olympic Stadium at last year’s IAAF World Championships was recorded by 49 high-speed cameras and has now been measured and analysed as part of the study.

The results were released in partnership with Leeds Beckett University at the IAAF Coaches Conference in Finnish city Tampere, where the World Under-20 Championships are currently taking place.

After 12 months of intensive work, Leeds Beckett has produced 38 in-depth reports on the specific events that make up the track and field programme, revealing details about the performances of the world’s best athletes.

The IAAF has been carrying out biomechanical research for 30 years.

The first study was conducted at the World Championship in Rome in 1987.

"The reports over the three decades show how far technology and technics have come over these 30 years and give a rare insight into the evolution of biomechanical data in our sport over this time," IAAF President Sebastian Coe said.

"Biomechanics are crucial to the development of athletes where milliseconds and millimetres can make the difference between qualifying for a final, or not, and winning a medal, or not.

"They enable athletes and coaches to perfect performances, tweak technique and more importantly understand, manage and mitigate injury."

Last year’s biomechanical study recorded data from 76 individual events, filming more than 730 athletes with 49 high-speed and high-definition cameras.

Leeds Beckett University clocked up over 6,500 hours in planning, data collection and data analysis resulting in the 38 individual reports launched today.

"Partnering the IAAF in this project was a very exciting chapter for the biomechanics department within the Carnegie School of Sport at Leeds Beckett University," Dr Athanassios Bissas, head of the department, said. 

"It was both exciting and carried significant responsibility because of the scope of the project and capturing live data from athletes such as Usain Bolt, Mo Farah and over 700 other top athletes.

"Central to our data collection protocols was the deployment of three-dimensional motion techniques to analyse all the events.

"The plan was to deploy as many cameras as possible per event so all key aspects are captured.

"For instance, we deployed 23 high-speed cameras to capture the 100 metres race, something unprecedented in the world of athletics, and definitely a first in terms of biomechanical sprinting analysis.

"We are proud of this project and feel it will be an important milestone in the development of biomechanics in athletics.

"We are confident that the reports will provide everyone in the sport of athletics with useful material for many years to come."

Among the highlights of the research was that on the steeplechase, which was recorded in detail for the first time.

It is claimed the outstanding technique of American athletes Emma Coburn and Courtney Frerichs in the women’s 3,000m steeplechase clearly showed that medals were won and lost in the water.

The research showed in detail that the United States team’s effective water jump clearance techniques were key to their performances.

The 4x100m men’s relay shows that the difference between gold and silver was the exact same difference between the time the athletes spent in the changeover zone.

The Great Britain men’s team spent the least total time in the changeover zone, 0.05 seconds less than the US team which was the winning margin.

The data captured on women's 10,000m champion Almaz Ayana of Ethiopia, meanwhile, shows a difference of up to 20 centimetres between the length of her strides from right to left - her right to left is longer than left to right.

While it is hoped the reports will provide useful insight for coaches and athletes, it is anticipated they will also help the sport innovate by providing new data and graphics that can be shared with the media and fans around the world.

The longest 110m hurdle clearance was recorded at the championships from bronze medallist Balázs Baji of Hungary - over two metres before the hurdle and just under two metres after the hurdle, so a four-metres hurdle, just under half the length of a world-class long jump.

The longest measured stride during speed development in the women’s 100m final was recorded by The Netherlands’ Dafne Schippers at a pretty impressive 2.3m.

"These are distances that our fans understand and can marvel at," Coe added.

"Together with take-off speeds in jumps and the speed of release in throws we can use this data to tell the stories of the enormous feats that our athletes achieve, bringing to life their extraordinary talents and enhancing our fans’ understanding, enjoyment and appreciation of our sport.

2We are working on some innovative ideas around graphics for our next World Championships in Doha, using biomechanical data to bring our fans closer to the action and our athletes.

"These are exciting times for our sport.

"I would like to end by saying a huge thank you to our development team, to Leeds Beckett University and to all the coaches that have contributed to the reports by analysing the data and providing expert opinions in each of the reports."

The reports can be accessed by clicking here.