Tiny ‘engines’ with top endurance

FOR decades, the “Flying Finns” were the world's best in distance running, their wins multiplying in tandem with their growing nationalist tradition of success (a situation replicated in the javelin).

The Finnish were eventually eclipsed by the great Anglo tradition in running, led in the 1980s by Sebastian Coe, Steve Cram and Steve Ovett.

By the last decade of the 20th century, as the door of opportunity opened to less developed nations, the centre of gravity shifted dramatically and decisively toward North and East Africa.

According to some, that cycle of history itself suggests that no population has a lock on distance running success.

Surely, they say, Kenyan dominance will eventually fade, much as it did for the Finns and Brits, and the trend will shift once again to another nation?

Not so fast. To flesh out this debate, it's instructive to put Kenya under a microscope.

This small East African country, with a population of less than 30 million, is home to the greatest per capita concentration of raw athletic talent in the history of the world.

Despite the enormous success of Kenyan runners in the past two decades, running remains a relative afterthought in this football-crazed nation.

Yet, while Kenyans and other East Africans sweep upwards of 60 per cent of the world's distance running events, they are among the world's worst football players — and sprinters.

In the sprints, after an intense decade-long national recruitment and training effort, the best Kenyan time ever in the 100m (10.28 sec) ranks somewhere near 5,000th on the all-time list.

East Africans have a very distinct genetically endowed body type and physiology. Kenyans are ectomorphs, short and slender, with huge natural lung capacity and a preponderance of slow-twitch muscles, the vital energy system for endurance sports.

It's a perfect biomechanical package for distance running, but a disaster for sports — like sprinting and football — that require anaerobic bursts of speed.

While Kenyans and other East Africans hold more than 60 per cent of the world's top endurance times, athletes of West African ancestry, including most North American, British and Caribbean blacks, are among the world's worst distance runners.

The ectomorphic body type so common among East Africans is not very common in whites and is almost non-existent in those with roots in West Africa.

They tend to have small and efficient lungs, muscular 'mesomorphic' lower bodies, and a high proportion
of fast-twitch muscle fibres which contribute to explosive speed.