27-05-2025
Researcher pushing for international standard for mapping trail running events in bid for Olympics inclusion
An avid trail runner is mapping every twist and turn of the trails around Brisbane's Mount Coot-tha in an effort to bring much-needed precision to the growing sport.
University of Queensland research scientist Raimundo Sanchez has covered the trails hundreds of times with a professional GPS.
Unlike a regular marathon or running event that can be measured using a calibrated bicycle, accurately measuring trail runs is an endeavour in science and technology.
"When you run in the trails, the mountains have a ragged shape and the complexity of the terrain makes it difficult to capture with regular tools," Dr Sanchez said.
There's no international standard for how trail running events are measured, which Dr Sanchez said was hindering the sport from being taken more seriously.
"That's what I'm trying to mitigate," he said.
"I'm trying to develop a reproducible way to compare distances and elevation gain in different trail running races anywhere in the world."
Trail run organisers can use a variety of ways to measure and plot out an event.
"I've seen races where they design the route solely on the computer and don't even step onto the trails. Others use a proper GPS device or a smart watch," Dr Sanchez said.
Not all GPS devices are the same either. It can depend on the resolution of the measurements taken or how accurate it is.
A professional-grade GPS can be accurate to within a few centimetres whereas an average smart watch can be from one to five metres.
That might be fine for an amateur run, but Dr Sanchez said there needs to be a globally accepted standard of measurement for international events.
"If you measure each second it will give you a different distance than if you measure every two seconds," Dr Sanchez said.
"It's important to define which is the standard that we want to adopt."
Dr Sanchez recently tested his method at the Brisbane Trail Marathon and said he hoped to standardise all Queensland races in the coming months.
"If we as a trail runner community want our sport to grow and to become a more mature sport, if we want our sport to get to the Olympics for example, we will need the sport to get serious and to develop and adopt certain standards like this one," he said.
Michael Duggan is heading a campaign for trail running to be included in the 2032 Olympic Games in Brisbane.
He said Mr Sanchez's research is a "world first" and will help athletes understand how their performance measures globally.
"One of the things that we've really struggled with for a lot of years is the ability to be able to measure in a consistent way globally the types of trails that we run on," Mr Duggan said.
"It's very important for things like world records to ensure that trail running metrics are spot on."
Brisbane's local Olympic organising committee is set to reveal the six sports it will endorse to include in 2032 within the next 18 months.
Mr Duggan believes trail running has a good chance of making the cut.
"That's because of its growth, its diversity and the size of groups that are actually coming out of the woodwork to join trail running as an amazing new sport."
