Although some biomechanical analyses have been performed on sprint events in athletics, no notational analysis studies have been completed. The purpose of this research was to design systems to analyse this type of event, explore their applications and analyse elite level 400m runners using a hand notation system, in order to identify what varying tactics and techniques separate the winners from the rest of the field. A system was designed, and then tested for validity and reliability. Notation was carried out via video coverage of the Sydney '2000'Olympics, with athletes split times, stride count and race position at each 100m interval recorded onto notational analysis sheets. Research results showed no significant difference (P<0.05) for all measured variables between the winners, second, third and fourth place athletes. For total stride count measurements, a mean stride count for first place male athletes of 171.73 strides +/- 8SD represented a large amount of variation at this level. Fourth place female athletes recorded a mean total stride count of 185.3 strides +/- 7.73SD further quantifying this finding. The proposed application of 'percentage difference' as a more appropriate analytical technique for performance variations as small as those found in this piece of research, indicated differences did exist on all variables considered. A significant difference was found between the split times of all four 100m sections (P<0.01) with 100-200m and 200-300m identified as being significantly faster than the first and last 100m sections. Analysis of winning males race positions signified 31% were in first place by 200m and 63% by the 300m mark. None of the winning athletes were further down the field than 4th place by 300m. Analysis of female results indicated all winning athletes were in the top three by 200m. On reaching the 300m mark, 69% were in first position with no athletes further down the field than second place. Comparisons between winning male and female 400m athletes identified a significant difference (P<0.01) between total stride count and stride length. No difference in stride rate was found (P<0.01). On comparing variables between the rounds of competition, a significant difference (P<0.01) was found for both male and female athletes on differing counts.
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