On the sports track - divers in OpenCV

Video tracking can be quite challenging. I compared 3 algorithms based on OpenCV for a tracking solution:

1. Camshift - originally created for face tracking, it locks onto a blob with similar colour. In this case the colours are too similar with the background resulting is appalling performance from camshift.
2. Optical Flow - LkDemo shows this technique in use. It works pretty well till an obstruction passes in front of the tracked object clearing all flow points. The flow points then need to be reinitialized.
   
   
   
3. Template Tracking - Works much better than the other two. However does not regain lock after obstruction.