Analysis of Factors Affecting the Development of
Competitive Level of Mountain Outdoor Sports
—Taking the Abu Dhabi International expedition in 2010 as an example
Wangli Zhang
Department of Physical Education
Zhengzhou Shengda Business Administration College
Zhengzhou, Henan, China
Abstract- Objective: based on the analysis to the elements affecting the results of China's national team in the 2010 moun-
tain outdoor sports adventure challenge race in Abu Dhabi, some theoretical and practical basis on which suggestions are
provided on further promoting China's mountain outdoor sports results and the competitive level are given.Subjects: athletic
performance of the top six teams and China's national team in 2010 mountain outdoor sports and athletic perfor-
mance;Methods: using expert interviews, reference and data, mathematical statistics, analyze the athletic performance of the
top six teams and China's national team in 2010 mountain outdoor sports and athletic performance on foot and bicycle
projects on class projects with the world's top mountain outdoor big gap between sports teams;Result: there are big gaps be-
tween China's mountain outdoor sports teams and foreign teams on projects like footing and bicycling; Conclusion: Al-
though in recent years, our mountain outdoor sports performance has been greatly improved, but the large gap do exist on
foot and bicycle projects. so these projects need strengthening .
Keywords- mountain outdoor sports; results; multi-element analysis
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. Introduction
Outdoor sports originated from the Alps Mountaineer-
ing in the 18th century and introduced to China In the
1980s by the United States and Europe[1]. With the conti-
nuous improvement of living standards, it is increasingly
popular in China, attracting more and more participants.
Mountain outdoor sports venue is a sports group with ad-
venture characteristics and adventure-experiencing charac-
teristics, taking place in natural environment. As a branch
of outdoor sports, mountain outdoor sports develop with a
high speed [2]. At present, in China, the main events in-
clude China Baise International Mountain Outdoor Sports
Challenge, Ninghai China Open mountain outdoor sports
in, Wulong China International Open Mountain outdoor
sports, Zunyi China International Invitational Mountain
Outdoor Sports.
The Abu Dhabi International Adventure Challenge,
sponsored by the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority, occurs in
Abu Dhabi the capital of UAE. This most influential event
of this field is held in every December and its race group
Committee is in France. This event includes variety of ac-
tivities, including the desert orientation, mountain biking,
cross-country hiking, and sea kayaking and adventure tri-
athlon. In 2010, there are a total of 49 teams, 200 athletes.
China sent Yang Jiayin, LiJun, Han Meng and QiRanran to
participate in the competition. These teams represent the
world's top levels of mountain outdoor sports. Therefore,
the analysis and study on the results of them is of great
importance, by which we may improve our training me-
thods and performances.
2. Study objects and methods
A. Study objects
In this paper, the results of the Chinese national team
and other foreign teams in the 2010 Abu Dhabi Adventure
Challenge sports are the study objects.
B. Research Methods
1). Interview method
surveys are conducted to the 15 members in China's
two international mountain outdoor sports teams (team 1
and team 2) of the 2010 Abu Dhabi Adventure Challenge
(5 national athlete-class athletes, 4 first class athletes, 6
two class athletes), and interviewees include the five
coaches ( three senior , 1 middle, 1 junior). These activities
provide first-hand information for writing the paper.
2). The documentation method
Through access to National Library of China, Beijing
Sport University Library, the Chinese How Net and the
related books, papers, periodical, a variety of electronic
documents and other relevant literatures, we read the re-
sults of the past games and have a systematic inspection .
Open Journal of Applied Sciences
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3). Mathematical statistics method
The statistical software spss13.0 is used to analyze the
results of Chinese national team in 2010 Abu Dhabi Inter-
national Mountain Outdoor Adventure Challenge, and
which is compared with the top six foreign teams.This
provides reliable data for the paper.
3. Results and Analysis
2010 Abu Dhabi Adventure Challenge International is
divided into four days schedule, nine sections, with a total
distance of 429.1 kilometers [3]. first day, three sections,
including adventure triathlon 20 kilometers (kayak adven-
ture triathlon, running and swimming), mountain bike 30
kilometers and running 6.3kms. In the second, mountain
biking 20 kilometers, climbing and rope skills 9.8 kilome-
ters. In the third day, mountain bike 94 kilometers and
desert orientation 121 kilometers. In the fourth day , sea
kayaking competition 128 kilometers.
According to the characteristics of events, this paper
will divide this competition into four categories for statis-
tical analysis, 1 on foot categories(including running,
desert orientation, etc.),2 Bicycle categories, 3 water sports
(including boating, swimming, sea canoeing, etc.) and 4
climbing categories.
A. Analysis of the proportion of each project
The game is based on the length of time to complete all
the activities. Shorter time means better result. Therefore,
the length of time represents the proportion of the activity
in the whole game.
Chinese team finished the tournament with 56 hours
and 55 minutes (that is 3415 minutes). After classification
statistics: 1 (foot categories) 2240 minutes, 2 (Bicycle ca-
togaries) 451 minutes, 3 (water sports) 409 minutes, 4
(climbing categories) 315 minutes.
It can be seen from the figure, in the Abu Dhabi Inter-
national adventure challenge race, climbing takes a smaller
proportion, bike and water sports have almost equal pro-
portion, the largest proportion is occupied by foot catego-
ries (66 %). Therefore, strengthening the foot categories is
the breakthrough to improve the performance of Chinese
national team.
B. Analysis of comparison of Chinese and foreign athletic
performance
After classifying and calculating the achievement of
the competition, we get the average time used by the six
top teams in the competition shown in Figure 2:
Figure 2: Result of the 6 top teams (minute)
teams foot bike water climb
Thule Adv team 1796 363 332 254
Thule Adv team˄EU˅ 1853 369 342 263
Wenger 1858 390 368 256
Adidas Terex 1815 432 379 278
Team net competence 1953 390 344 270
Orion adventure 1928 415 358 294
Average time 1867 393 354 269
The following is the comparison between the time used
by Chinese team 1 and the average time of the 6 top teams
Figure 3
As can be seen from Figure 3, the time Chinese team
complete all types of sports spent is longer than the aver-
age time of the six top teams, which shows the general
levels of China mountain outdoor sports is lower than the
average level of the top six teams.
In addition, the Chinese team have the largest gap with
the top six teams in 1 (foot activities), 373 minutes longer;
2 (Bicycle Project) 58 minutes longer and 3 (water sports)
55 minutes longer. The difference in 4 (class sport climb-
ing) is smallest, 46 minutes longer.
C. Rate analysis on the ratio of athletic performance Gap
between china and foreign countries
In this paper, the differential ratio is the one between
the absolute result difference and the result of the team.
The greater the differential ratio is, the bigger the ath-
letic difference is. Meanwhile, the poorer the performance
is, the larger the potential is. Thus, more training is
needed.The differential ratio between Chinese team and the
top 6:
Figure 4 The differential ratio between Chinese team and the top 6
activities china average of top 6 difference ratio
foot 2240 1867 373 16.65%
bike 451 393 58 12.86%
water 409 354 55 13.45%
climb 315 269 46 14.60%
It can be seen from the figure; the Chinese team has the
greatest ratio in footactivities, 16.65%; in descending or-
der, climbing sports, 14.60%; water sports, 13.45%; bi-
cycle sports, 12.86%. This shows that Chinese foot moun-
tain outdoor sports teams have the biggest improvement
room in foot and climbing activities.
D. index analysis on Potential contribution of each sport
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In analyzing this mountain outdoor sports formed by a
number of mixed-type sports, the involving consideration
elements include the proportion of different activity to the
whole game, result difference, differential ratio. The result
difference and the proportion deserves systemically and
synthetic consideration and research. Therefore, the term
index of potential contribution of each sport is used. It is
the product of multiplication between the absolute result
difference and the proportion of this activity.
The greater the contribution index is, the greater the
potential to improve it is ; vice the verse. The following is
the contribution index of the Chinese team:
Table 5 Contribution index
activity result difference proportion index
foot 373 66% 246.18
bike 58 13% 7.54
water 55 12% 6.60
climb 46 9% 4.14
It can be seen from Figure 5, to improve athletic per-
formance in the entire game, the most potential project is
foot activities, and bicycle follows. Therefore, in order to
make a breakthrough in Abu Dhabi Mountain outdoor ad-
venture challenge, focus shouldbe on strengthening the
training in foot and bicycle activities.
E. Multivariate analysis of China's mountain outdoor
sports scores
In 2010 Abu Dhabi Adventure Challenge International,
the Chinese team 1 got thirteenth place which is a historic
breakthrough. But, compared with the top six teams, the
Chinese team has a huge gap, no matter in foot, bicycle,
water sports or mountaineering activities. Based on the
data analysis in this paper , the survey on the members in
Chinese national team, such as YangJiayin, LiJun, Han-
Meng, and the interviews with the coaches, it is not so hard
to find out the factors affecting China's mountains outdoor
athletic performanceDŽ
5. Factors factor influencing the
achievement of mountain outdoor
sports
A. Physical factors influencing the achievement of moun-
tain outdoor sports
Mountain outdoor games are physically dominant,
which requires athletes’ good physical function as a basis.
Look at this game, the top six teams respectively come
from New Zealand, France, Switzerland, United Kingdom,
Sweden and New Zealand. New Zealand are Oceania, oth-
er European countries are all European countries. From the
physical point of view the athletes from the Europe are
absolutely stronger than those from Asia. In the world's top
mountain outdoor game like Abu Dhabi International Ad-
venture Challenge, athletes need higher requirements on
physical fitness. Therefore, Asian athletes have a very long
way to go in such kind of international competitions.
B. Experience factor influencing the achievement of moun-
tain outdoor sports
2010 is the second participating year for china in the
Abu Dhabi International Adventure Challenge. Among the
Players in team 1, QiRanran (female) is the only expe-
rienced member; the other 3 were all first participants.
They suffer from time difference, diet change, setting
change, the lack of experiences about energy distribution
and so on.
C. Equipment factor influencing the achievement of moun-
tain outdoor sports
In any Mountain outdoor sports games, athletes com-
pete not only about the physical function, techniques and
tactics, it also require fine equipment and other guarantee.
Compared with the foreign athletes’ high-tech and ad-
vanced equipment, our team is poor. Therefore, the equip-
ment and packing are also factors influencing Chinese out-
door athletic results.
D. Organizational factors influencing the achievement of
mountain outdoor sports
Chinese outdoor team is new, receiving training just
more than a month, which caused the lack of effective
technical teamwork. For example, in water sports, team
members did receive swimming and rowing (canoe) train-
ing, but thay did not have enough time for sea kayaking
(Sea kayaking) training, rowing and kayaking. Though
they all belong to the water sports, but in the technical
points they are different.
E. Other factors influencing the achievement of mountain
outdoor sports
In addition to the 4 factors above, some other factors
may also work, such as weather, setting arrangement, and
structure of a team. In 2010 Abu Dhabi International Ad-
venture Challenge, Chinese team was punished to stop for
6 hours due to one miss of a destination caused by our
careless calculating, which is a significant reason for the
failure this year.
6. Conclusions and recommendations
Through the survey it indicates that the level of China's
mountain outdoor adventure sports teams is obviously
lower than the top 6 teams in Abu Dhabi International
Challenge race. How to increase Chinese athletes ‘physical
fitness in a not long time is the major problem.
From the result comparison between China and the top
six teams, we find that: among all the games, China is ob-
viously weaker in activities of foot and bicycle categories,
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so our daily competition or training should focus on these
fields.
mountain outdoor sports require high-standard physi-
cal fitness and equipment. so China should increase in-
vestment. At the same time, our mountain outdoor teams
should also actively raise funds from market, drawing so-
cial capital, providing and updating equipment and other
packing guarantee. Only in this way can we set up a scien-
tific and efficient supporting system for our mountain out-
door sports.
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