"Легкоатлетического вестника ИААФ" 4-2009 - Московский ...

Средние и длинные дистанции
should be running his race feeling relaxed, balanced
and in control and ready to respond to any
manoeuvre or change in pace. Because of this the
athlete should be in a position to accelerate from
the front or further down the field. One of the
biggest mistakes an athlete can commit is to either
leave space on the inside or move out into lane
two when it is not necessary in the final stretch,
allowing a rival to steal a march with no effort or
extra distance covered on his part. This is normally
demoralising, especially when another athlete
goes past on the outside at the same time and any
impetus the former leader had is lost.
8 The phenomenon of East African
distance running success
Hartmann, R.
The social and historical background of the
running success of the Kalenjin
New Studies in Athletics, 21, (2006), 3, pp. 7-11
The author provides an explanation of the cattle raid
in Kalenjin, Kenya and the influence of this practice
on the running abilities of the Kenyans. Information
on the people of Kalenjin and how they live are
included as is a description of the author’s experience
in the land.
Hartmann, R.
Why are the Kenyan runners so good?
New Studies in Athletics, 18, (2003), 2, pp. 7-10
The author writes about his attempts to find the reason
behind Kenya’s success over the middle and
long distances. He presents impressions and ideas
gathered from many visits to the country and discussions
with several top stars. He concludes that
there are many facets to the explanation including
physiological advantages, environmental factors,
diet and lifestyle, a willingness to work extremely
hard for social advancement and a superior determination
to win resulting from social practices, an
important part of which is the male initiation rites.
La Torre, A.; Impellizzeri, F.; Dotti, A.; Arcelli,
E.
Do Caucasian athletes need to resign
themselves to African domination in middleand
long-distance running?
New Studies in Athletics, 20, (2005), 4, pp. 39-49
To determine if Caucasian middle-and long-distance
runners really have to accept the current
domination of their events at world level by athletes
from Africa as inevitable, the authors review the
main intrinsic and extrinsic factors determining
endurance performance. Their analysis of the scientific
literature shows differences in intrinsic factors
that could partly explain the excellent performances
of African athletes, but also that there is no scientific
proof of inherent superiority. They then focus on
the increasing weight of opinion that the apparent
physiological “superiority” of African runners is due,
at least in part, to extrinsic factors. They conclude
that, though African runners may have certain, as
yet unproven, genetic advantages, coaches and
athletes in Europe can learn important lessons and,
through a change in attitude and better training
methods, increase their success even at the highest
level of competition.
Lantz, L.
Reasons the Kenyans dominate long distance
running
Track Coach, (Fall 2008), 185, pp. 5897-5899
Стр 131
According to the author, there are many reasons
why Kenyan runners perform better, and not one
of them is due to genetics. Instead he gives 13
other reasons: 1. East African children walk and at
times do even-paced running to/from school each
day. 2. The most popular sport for most of Africa
is soccer. Soccer gives each runner his weekly
speed workout. Soccer allows children to keep in
touch with their fast-twitch muscle fibres as they
build their aerobic base. 3. 99.5 % of Kenyan children
run barefoot for the first 14 years of their life.
This way they develop proper running technique
and avoid knee and ankle injuries due to bad
shoes. 4. Barefoot running strengthens foot and
lower leg muscles to an incredible degree. 5.
Barefoot running does not stress the major muscle
groups as much. The calves and feet do the
brunt of the work. The entire stress of the workout
is placed on the cardio system. Thus, recovery is
faster for the Kenyans. 6. Barefoot running allows
more trapped heat to be thrown off during a workout.
Energy normally expended trying to dissipate
heat can instead go to the creation of new capillaries
in the legs and the strengthening of the
heart. 7. In the mountains, the Kenyans have perfect
training temperature. 8. Kenya’s fastest and
most gifted young athletes do not drift into sports
(like baseball, football, tennis, gymnastics) that stifle
the ongoing development of their aerobic base.
9. In Kenya there are no jobs for teenagers, and
no other sports or after school programmes to
conflict with their training. 10. In Kenya, there are
no high school track programmes which would
interfere with their base building phase. 11. Their
diet keeps Kenyans very lean. Thus they can train
harder and are less likely to succumb to training
injuries. 12. Kenyans have more patience and
don’t need or demand the immediate results that
U.S. kids want. Therefore, they don’t burn out so
easily. 13. Kenyan children train in the absence of
track coaches who think their athletes need to run
more and more intervals.
Saltin, B.
The Kenya project – Final report
New Studies in Athletics, 18, (2003), 2, pp. 15-24
The author reports on the work and key findings
of a twin study project, funded by the International
Athletic Foundation, to investigate possible
explanations for the success Kenyan middle and
long distance runners. The first study, looked at
groups of boys from the Kenyan town of Eldoret,
a rural village in north-western Kenya, and Denmark.
The findings include comparisons of daily
physical activity, anthropometric measures, maximal
oxygen consumption, blood lactate and heart
130