Two-Lap Runners Of The Future

SPORTS SCIENTISTS ARE STUDYING THE CHANGING FACE OF 800m RUNNING. WHAT CAN THEIR FINDINGS TELL US.

- Matt Long

DATE: July 25, 1976; Venue: the Montreal Olympic Stadium, Canada.

There, a 6ft 2in tall former high school basketball player wearing 217 on his white Cuban vest crosses the line of the men’s 800m final and triumphantly throws both arms in the air.

The late David Coleman is screaming into his microphone. “A new world record for a man who is still a baby at the event,” he tells viewers.

We are talking, of course, about Alberto Juantorena, the giant of an athlete affectionately nicknamed ‘White Lightning’ who retired in the 1980s after his brilliant Olympic and world record of 1:43.50 some 41 summers ago.

But could we soon see the return of his kind of two-lap runner?

Research being conducted by Gareth Sandford, a performance physiologist with High-Performance Sport New Zealand, suggests that might be the case. Why?

Sports science provides some clues. As an athlete, your anaerobic speed reserve constitutes the range of speed which you possess from velocity at VO2max (or maximal aerobic speed), up to your maximum sprint speed. Ongoing research by Sandford and his team suggests this is hugely important in terms of both identifying and training the middle distance runner of the 21st century.

The emergence of ‘positive pacing’

Using Kinovea software analysis of first lap and second lap splits over 800m races from 13 Olympic Games and world championships – from Sydney 2000 to Rio 2016 – Sandford has made some interesting discoveries.