Talk:Sprint (race)

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[edit] NPOV, NPOV, NPOV!

This article needs some serious NPOV work. If I wasn't half asleep, I'd do it now! newkai 22:37, 15 Jun 2005 (UTC)

I can not see anything that is remotely controversial. Also, the above author does not point to anything that he or she considers to be controversial. I am therefore removing the NPOV-tag.

I'm sorry but language like "A very interesting distance" and "runners face off at this distance and come away satisfied" does not belong in the Wikipedia, as it directly refers to the author's POV.

So I've added the NPOV boilerplate.

Someone sort this --193.132.159.170 14:04, 16 Jun 2005 (UTC)

These are among the most glamorous events in the Olympic Games
The 100 metres is the best-known sprint distance, and it is one of the most prestigious events in athletics.

The above two statements seem to be POV. SlowJog 23:49, 28 June 2007 (UTC)


[edit] Biological factors

Who wrote the chapter "Biological factors for runners"? I don't hesitate to say that it's a misleading rubbish! (sorry, but here in Wikipedia you must have extra responsibility, because you can mystify the whole world!). The most important facors that determine sprinters' performance are:

- higher ratio of fast-twitch fibres in working muscles (i.e. legs)

- strongly developed musculature of thighs and buttocks + correspondingly developed upper body that counterbalances forces generated during fast movement

- higher activity of anaerobic enzymes involved in muscular work of short duration

- long fascicles (fusiform muscles) arranged parallel to the course of the movement

- fascicles attached closer to the joint, which enables larger range of movement and hence also quicker movement

- narrower pelvis = little lateral rotation during quick movement and hence less energy loss

- anterior pelvic tilt (in fact lordosis-like buttock or "high buttock")which creates better angle for rapid movement of legs during sprinting in mild foward-bend

- skeletal morphology of legs: short, muscular thighs+long, thin calves. This morphology guarantees minimal inertia during fast movement

As for anthropometry, a typical 100 m sprinter is about 180 cm tall and weighs 75 kilos. His somatotype is highly mesomorphic (1.5-5.5-3, in world class sprinters maybe even 1.5-6-2.5). 200 m sprinters are not much different, but they can be taller and relatively leaner. Quartermilers have a very specific body build: they are the tallest of all runners with an average height approaching 190 cm and weight about 80 kilos. There are only few 400 m runners smaller than 180 cm. Their somatotype is correspondingly less mesomorphic (1.5-4.5-3.5). The reason of increasing height with increasing distance length lies in the decreasing importance of inertia during movement, but increasing importance of step length and anaerobic output. Quartermilers thus have both relatively and absolutely longer legs than 100 m sprinters. A 100 m sprinter with the height and leg length of a 400 m runner couldn't accelerate as fast as his smaller colleague. On the other hand, a small quartermiler with shorter legs couldn't compete with a long-legged man, whose anaerobic output (determined by step length)is much higher.

[edit] Fielding a 400 team?

Do we really need to verify that it is difficult to field a strong 400 team? Fielding a single strong 400 runner seems to be by default difficult; surely fielding 4 of them would be even more so. At the very least, it is more difficult than fielding a single 400 runner. Whatchu guys think? JaderVason 02:03, 1 December 2006 (UTC)

It really isn't a general "fact" that it is difficult to build a strong 4x400m relay team. It really depends on the situation. It is always harder to find many better runners than just one, that's not really specific to the 4x400m, or even any sort of relay for that matter. Mipchunk 06:35, 1 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Hurdlers section

I have just topped myself from deleting this entire section as OR, to give somebody a chance to argue for its retention, but I see nothing apposite in it that is verifiable or could not be challenged as POV.

"It is more common for hurdlers to go to the flat than for runners to start hurdling." Well what did they do before they hurdled then?

"Often a 400 m hurdler will be able to run the 4 x 400 m relay" There is nothing to stop a shot-putter from taking part in it either: what is this meant to communicate?

"This is possibly partly because the hurdles and the relay involve a less "controlled" environment" Is there evidence that jumping over barriers is a good preparation for being jostled from the side?

I'll delete the section in a week unless somebody gives strong arguments here to the contrary in the interim. Kevin McE 09:44, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

I don't know about this "less controlled environment" stuff, so the information about the relay seems suspicious. However, the information about conversion between flat and hurdle is certainly true. It is much more common for a hurdler to run flat than for a flat runner to become a hurdler. Furthermore, it is also true that an injury in hurdling can cause an athlete to switch to flats. Mipchunk 19:01, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

As regards the injury bit: is it verifiable? Even if examples can be quoted, that does not make it a general practice. And can it not equally be said that athletes begin running 400m, and then add the hurdling skills? Kids surely run before they jump. Kevin McE 20:52, 4 February 2007 (UTC)