PVStudent, here's the same data, reformatted for readability ...
Step Length (metres) at the Rome IAAF World Championships in 1987 and Seoul Olympic Games in 1988.				
					
Code: Select all
                4th   3rd   2nd   Last 4th-3rd 3rd-2nd 2nd-1st
Name     Year  Step  Step  Step   Step   Steps   Steps   Steps
                  
Bubka    1987  2.25  2.09  2.16   1.94   -0.16   +0.07   -0.32
         1988  2.26  2.07  2.11   1.95   -0.19   +0.04   -0.16
                        
Vigneron 1987   N/A  2.12  2.19   2.00     N/A   +0.07   -0.19
         1988  2.10  2.01  2.00   2.05   -0.09   -0.01   +0.05
                        
Gataulin 1987  2.04  2.16  1.87   2.03   +0.07   -0.29   +0.16
         1988  2.02  2.03  1.80   1.94   +0.01   -0.23   +0.14
                        
Bell     1987  2.10  2.06  2.13   2.03   -0.04   +0.07   -0.10
         1988  2.27  2.05  2.27   2.10   -0.22   +0.22   -0.17
                        
Collett  1987   N/A   N/A   N/A    N/A     N/A     N/A     N/A
         1988  1.92  1.96  2.01   1.93   +0.04   +0.05   -0.08 Step Frequency (s/s) at the Rome IAAF World Championships in 1987 and Seoul Olympic Games in 1988.								Code: Select all
               4th   3rd  2nd  Last 4th-3rd 3rd-2nd 2nd-1st
Name     Year Step  Step Step  Step   Steps   Steps   Steps
                  
Bubka    1987  4.5   4.8  4.9   5.1  +0.4     +0.1     +0.2
         1988  4.3   5.4  4.8   5.1  +1.1     -0.6     +0.3
                        
Vigneron 1987  N/A   4.6  4.3   4.9   N/A     -0.3     +0.6
         1988  4.4   4.5  4.7   4.3  +0.1     +0.2     -0.4
                        
Gataulin 1987  4.6   4.9  5.1   4.9  +0.3     +0.2     -0.2
         1988  4.4   5.0  5.4   5.3  +0.1     +0.4     -0.1
                        
Bell     1987  4.3   4.3  4.5   5.3   0.0     +0.2     +0.8
         1988  4.0   4.7  4.2   4.5  +0.7     -0.5     -0.1
                        
Collett  1987  N/A   N/A  N/A   N/A   N/A      N/A      N/A
         1988  4.9   5.1  4.7   5.4  +0.2     -0.4     +0.7 
Cautions on interpreting this data (someone might have already covered these) ...
Missing data: It's safe to assume that the subject's height did not change, but what about their grip and mass? (from one 
year to the next, I mean!) 
 
Best sample: Does each row represent the best vault for the subject during each event i.e. The highest height cleared? And 
what height is that? (not absolutely necessary here, but would be interesting to know)
Accuracy: It is assumed that this data came from digitizing videos. But without reference markers on the subjects, this 
process can be manually intensive and thus error prone, so are the values significantly accurate and significantly different 
from one step to the other (and from one subject to the other) to rely on?
Given the sample sizes, the values are inherently less accurate than for stride length and frequency of 100m sprinters. i.e. 
47 steps ÷ 100m or 47 steps ÷ 10 seconds gives a very precise value, whereas digitizing a single sample per subject per 
event does not.
There are surprising variants from step-to-step, and from event-to-event for the same subject. (Variants from subject to 
subject should not be surprising.) No one seems very consistent. 
• No one consistently increases their frequency in the last 3 steps - except Bubka. 
• No one consistently decreases their stride length - not even  Bubka.
So what does all this mean? I have no idea!
Kirk