HAVE you ever wondered who runs further – the umpires or the players?
As it turns out, boundary umpires typically cover more ground than the players during a game.
The gurus at Sports Performance Tracking put GPS technology on boundary umpires 20 times this year, and did the same with field umpires.
They found boundary umpires covered 16.02km per game. Meanwhile, field umpires did 14.04km per game.
To see how that compared to the players, Sports Performance Tracking analysed different matches.
In one played at the MCG, the most ground a player covered was 17km. Two boundary umpires who wore a GPS unit travelled 18.98km and 18.56km.
Another game this year saw a GPS unit put on a boundary umpire, who clocked up 15.46km. Only one player in that match did more, with the midfielder covering 16.2km.
Not only do boundary umpires have it over field umpires for distance covered, but also speed.
Looking at all running in a game faster than 21.6km/h, boundary umpires averaged 1.14km, compared to the 0.27km from field umpires at a similar speed.
