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Electronic data collection from athletes has been taken to new levels on Auckland's sports fields with a woman soccer player swallowing a wireless transmitter to give readings of her core body temperature.
North Shore-based player Hayley Hoegendyk swallowed the wireless capsule and then took part in a series of performance tests while researchers monitored her.
Massey University sports scientist Dr Ajmol Ali, in collaboration with Dr Nick Gant at Auckland University, tracked how hot Hoegendyk became while undergoing vigorous exercise and related that to her performance on the field.
Overheating can have serious consequences for athletes, Dr Ali said.
Researchers were interested in working out when soccer players should be pulled off the field because their core body temperature is too high and when they need fluid for rehydration.
The night before the experiment, Hoegendyk swallowed the tablet before going to bed, and through the following day Dr Ali and Dr Gant received data direct into their computer from the capsule in her intestine.
Dr Ali said the device typically passed through the digestive system within 24 hours.
The wireless devices have been trialled overseas by coaches of male soccer players and other footballers to monitor body temperature but they have not previously been used in women's soccer -- said to be the world's fastest growing sport.
The Auckland experiment is believed to be not only the first time these thermoregulatory sensors have been used in sportswomen, but the first time they have been used in New Zealand.
Dr Ali said in a statement that though high-profile male players were a well-researched group, elite female players needed separate study because their physiological responses were likely to be different.
- NZPA
