MAXIMISING OLYMPIC DISTANCE TRIATHLON PERFORMANCE ...

Kinanthropometric differences between World Championshipsenior and junior elite triathletesG.J. Landers, B.A. Blanksby, T.R. Ackland and D.A. Smith*Department of Human Movement and Exercise Science, The University of WesternAustralia, Perth, Australia*Queensland Academy of Sport, Brisbane, AustraliaEighty-seven triathletes who competed in the senior or junior elitecategories at the 1997 Triathlon World Championships weremeasured on a battery of 30 anthropometric dimensions. Analysessought to clarify what physical differences existed between thesecompetitors at the highest level.Generally, the senior triathletes were older, faster, heavier and hadbroader shoulders than their junior counterparts. The junior femalesrecorded a greater sum of 8 skinfolds, endomorphy rating and hadless muscle mass than their senior triathlete counterparts. Thesenior males revealed significantly greater segmental lengths, girthsand breadths than the junior males. However, most of thesedifferences were removed when applying dimensional scaling to theraw scores.These results suggest that, while the junior males have not fullymatured, they already have many of the proportional physicalcharacteristics of the senior male triathletes. Hence, after fulldevelopment, they could possess similar morphology. In contrast, thejunior female triathletes are closer to the senior females in physicalmaturity, except for a greater sum of skinfolds and less muscle mass.A higher level of training may therefore alter these characteristics andpossibly improve their performance.____________________Development in a sport at the elitelevel can be improved by knowing thephysical, physiological andpsychological characteristics ofcurrent elite athletes and to isolatethose factors that contribute to highlevels of performance. Then, coachesbenefit by planning better trainingprograms when preparing theirathletes for competition. It alsoassists the junior athletes who haveself-selected themselves and who willone day be the elite representatives ofthe sport.During its relatively brief existence, thephysiological characteristics oftriathlon’s participants have beeninvestigated, but the physicalmorphology has not yet been subjectto vigorous inquiry. Laurenson et al.(1993), Leake and Carter (1991) andTravill et al. (1994) all have examinedsmall samples of classic distancetriathletes in terms of physique andbody composition throughcomparisons with individual sportathletes, or between different abilitylevel triathletes. Ackland et al. (1998)reported complete anthropometricdata for senior and junior elitetriathletes at the 1997 Triathlon WorldChampionships (TWC). Thisresearch was expanded to study intothe relationship of theseanthropometric dimensions with theperformance outcomes in this event(Ackland et al., 1999; Landers et al.,1999).This paper aims to examine further theage-related kinanthropometric74