Men are, on average, faster than women when it comes to sprinting and marathoning. This is largely because of their generally bigger hearts, which can deliver more fresh oxygen to the body, and to bigger stores of the sex hormone testosterone, which can make muscles bulkier and stronger. Men are also able to store more glycogen in their muscles than women, which is like a quick-release fuel for speed. When it comes to the long distance races, however, research has found women gain speed throughout the course of the 26.2 miles, whereas men are more likely to slow. A new study suggests that at some of the very longest distances that people run, women tend to outperform men on a minute-per-mile basis. For the new study, a collaboration between the International Association of Ultrarunners and footwear review company RunRepeat, analysts looked more than 15,000 ultra running events over 23 years. They have discovered among many things, that as distances extend, women quickly close the pace gap between genders and at extreme distances women in fact are faster than their male counterparts. It found that females are typically faster than males over “extreme” distances of 300 kilometres or more. The longer the distance, the shorter the gender pace gap,” said the researchers. In 5 kilometres, men run 17.9 per cent faster than women, at marathon distance the difference is just 11.1 per cent, 100-mile races see the difference shrink to just 0.25 per cent, and above 195 miles, women are actually 0.6 per cent faster than men. Though the difference is small, but it’s still relevant, a 0.6% difference in time is substantial, over a 195-mile race.

In my opinion there could be physiological as well as psychological reasons to these results. Physiologically, when running at the submaximal intensity, required to complete a marathon or any ultra long distance race, women burn a higher percentage of fat than men. This would mean they are less likely to hit “the wall’ – the point when glycogen is depleted. Second, women have a greater proportion of type I muscle fibers, so their endurance capability is greater. Slow twitch muscle fibres are more efficient than fast twitch fibres because they used oxygen to produce the body’s primary energy source, ATP. These muscles are therefore ideal for endurance activities. In comparison, men appear to have a higher proportion of fast twitch muscle fibres and have a greater power output compared to women. Fast twitch muscle fibres have up to 20% better contractile force compared to slow twitch fibres, but they are not as efficient. They are better suited to activities which require short bursts of speed like sprinting. Third, and this applies specifically to marathons in warmer weather, women tend to have a larger surface area-to-mass ratio than men, allowing them to dissipate a larger percentage of heat produced by running. Finally, while there is not enough data to solidify the argument yet but it’s possible that estrogen, the female hormone helps make more fat available to the body as a fuel source once initial energy stores of glycogen have run down. Estrogen may also help improve super long-distance running performance because it helps protect muscle membranes, making muscles function more consistently and without much fatigue over long hours of running.

Men are more likely to slow down during a marathon race. This may be due to differences in pacing between the genders as men are more likely to adopt a faster pace at the outset of the race which increases the chance of slowing later.

One of the reasons women could be performing well at ultra-endurance events is how they deal with emotions, when they think about ultra-endurance events, one of the things that’s quite prevalent is emotions because you get fatigue, sleep deprivation and tiredness and that causes things like confusion and less helpful emotional responses. Typically females use more emotion-focused coping so they focus more on how to reframe what they are feeling than males in general. That might be a reason why they may be more suited to those more ultra-endurance events. For female participants, events such as childbirth help them to deal with the pain, means they have more belief in themselves so that they could push through the pain. When you think about ultra-endurance, it is a very painful experience.

The writer is a doctor of sports medicine. 

If an American study is to be believed, women are better in the longer race and there is a less difference in the timings. In other words, a gender gap keeps narrowing. Men finish the 5,000m race in 17.9 percent less time than women. But in a marathon, this difference remains only 11 percent. The study claimed that women would perform 0.6 percent better than men if they both run 195 miles. This study was prepared after analysing 15,000 races between 1986 and 2018.

Now if you look at the short distance race, the world record in the men›s 100m race is named after Usain Bolt (9.58 sec). At the same time, this record in women is in the name of Florence Griffith Joyner (10.49 sec) and the record has been maintained for the last 33 years. At the same time, the national record is in the name of Amia Kumar Mallick (10.26 sec), while the women›s national record for the same distance is in the name of Dutee Chand (11.22 sec) which she set in the Rio Olympics. In these two cases, a big difference has been seen, but if you see the difference between the two in a race of 5,000m, then you will see the difference decreasing. Joshua Cheptegei of Uganda (12:35.36 sec) holds the world record in the men›s five thousand meter race, while the women›s record is held by Letesenbet Gidey of Ethiopia (14:06.62 sec). India›s men›s national record is held by Bahadur Prasad (13:29.70 sec) and women›s record is in the name of Preeja Sreedharan (15:15.89 sec) in the same event. It is obvious that here the difference in timing in both has further reduced. The national record of 10,000 meters is held by Surendra Singh (28:02.89 sec) and the women›s record is held by Preeja Sreedharan (31:50.47 sec). At the national level, there is not much difference between five thousand and ten thousand meters in the men and women respectively, but at the world level this difference seems to be decreasing. The men›s world record in the Marathon was held by Eliud Kipchoge of Kenya (2:01.39) and the women›s record was held by Mary Jeskosgei Keitany of Kenya (2:17.01). This difference is far less than the difference of the champions of both the classes of 1925. This means that this difference has narrowed over time. The situation is the same at the national level as well. When Shivnath Singh had set a national record for marathon, he could not have imagined that this record would continue for the next 42 years.

Leave women, no Indian male athlete was even close to this record, but five years ago in the women category, O.P. Jaisha took this record in two hours 34.43 seconds at the World Championship in Beijing and she was quite close to Shivnath Singh’s record. But if you compare them with today›s male Indian athlete, then this gap becomes even less.

NEW DELHI: The Olympics is not just a sporting spectacle. There is massive money riding on it as well. It impacts numerous aspects of the host city’s economy and the performance of shining stars at the games.

It is an essential part of an elite athletic competition. But beyond sports lies a network of huge investment, money by tactful management, leadership, honesty and trust, to identify resources and eventually the source of revenues of the host city.

Before 1988, almost 80 per cent of funding came from US broadcast rights fees. The Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee (LAOOC), 1984, derived revenue from four major sources: Tickets, sales, television broadcast rights, and other sales of Olympic commemorative coins. LAOOC offered three levels of corporate participation—official sponsor, the official supplier and official licensee. A total of 164 companies joined the sports programme and contributed around $12.7 million in cash, services and products. The organising committee earned more than $76.3. The Los Angeles Games’ financial success also contributed to the awareness that the Olympics could create financial benefits for the hosting city, corporate sponsors and broadcasters.

Sponsor support is essential for the staging of the Games; commercial partners also provide vital technical services and product support to International Olympic Committee (IOC), Organising Committee of Olympic Games (OCOG) and the international federations (IFs), and National Olympic Committee (NOC). The IOC retains less than 7 per cent of the revenue of the collection, the balance, over 93 per cent, is distributed among NOC, OCOG and IFs.

The Olympics attracts fans from all over the world, with a diverse range of interest, from a passion for sports to fervent nationalism.

The most notable impact of the Olympics can be seen in the field of real estate. Atlanta and Los Angeles can be the perfect examples. The decision to select a host city gets an immediate positive response from the local stock market. The prospect of a higher worldwide profile gets market approval. The Beijing and London Games, however, bucked this trend.

The writer is a former Associate Professor, Delhi University & consultant, Limca Book of Records.

India boxer Amit Panghal might have had to settle with a silver medal at the just concluded Asian Boxing Championships, but the 25-year-old understands that he still needs to work on his craft if he has to bring back a medal from the Tokyo Olympics.

Panghal had gone down fighting against the reigning Olympics champion Zoirov Shakhobidin in a hard-fought men’s 52kg final at the 2021 ASBC Asian Boxing Championships in Dubai on Monday. In an interaction with ANI, Panghal opened up on his disappointment with having to settle for a silver medal at the Championships and spoke on his preparation for the upcoming Tokyo Games.

“I was thinking that I had won the last bout, but there must be some area where I did lag behind so I will try to work on that,” said Panghal while talking about the summit clash against Shakhobidin. “I have noted down few things where I need to improve and it will keep me in good stead going forward. There is scope for improvement, I have been training with my coach, where I lagged behind earlier, that has improved significantly now,” he added.

The defending champion Panghal put up a great fight against the world champion but it was not enough for the Indian to go past Uzbek boxer as he suffered a narrow 2-3 defeat with 29-28, 28-29, 28-29, 28-29, 30-27 scoreline. India also lodged a protest and contested the round two decision of the split verdict. But the protest lodged by Indian team had not been accepted by the Jury Commission and Panghal had to settle for a silver medal.

“I was thinking that the protest will be accepted, in my opinion, I had won the bout. I had gotten two rounds, the second round was decided in a 3-2 manner, we were thinking to take it 5-0, if we had gotten that, we would have won the bout 3-2. I do not know why the protest was cancelled. I had thought the bout was ours, but never mind, going forward, I will work harder,” said Panghal.

“The ones who protested against us, they got theirs accepted but the one we protested, we did not get that. The bouts were going 2-3 against us, and it were all going to Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. There can be a transparent scoring system and if it is implemented, it will help everyone. Many times we think that the bout has gone against us, if there is a transparent scoring system, it will help Indian boxing,” he added.

ANI

England club Everton on Tuesday confirmed that Carlo Ancelotti has left his position as manager to take up the role of head coach at Real Madrid.

Ancelotti, who joined Everton on a four-and-a-half-year contract in December 2019, in an official release issued by Everton said: “I would like to thank the Board of Directors, the players, and the Evertonians for the tremendous support they have all given me during my time at the club.” “I have complete respect for everyone associated with Everton and hope they can achieve the exciting opportunities they have in front of them. While I have enjoyed being at Everton I have been presented with an unexpected opportunity which I believe is the right move for me and my family at this time,” he added.

Everton will now begin the process of appointing a new manager immediately.

Last week, former French World Cup winner Zinedine Zidane had decided to leave Real Madrid, the LaLiga club announced.

After failing to win the LaLiga title for the 2020-21 season, Zidane had said he was gutted and would be talking to the club about his future later on.

“Real Madrid C. F. announces that Zinedine Zidane has decided to bring an end to his current spell as head coach of our club,” the club said in an official statement.

Last season, Real Madrid had won LaLiga, but this time they failed to secure the title in the 2020-21 season.

Real Madrid won 2-1 in their last game this season against Villarreal and as a result, the side finished at the second spot with 84 points.

After joining Spanish club FC Barcelona, Argentine striker Sergio Aguero said that he is looking forward to playing alongside Lionel Messi.

Spanish club FC Barcelona and Sergio Aguero on Monday reached an agreement for the player to join the club from July 1 when his contract with Manchester City expires. The player will sign a contract until the end of the 2022/23 season and his buy-out clause is set at 100 million euros.

Spanish tennis player Rafael Nadal on Tuesday stormed into the second round of the ongoing French Open.

Nadal defeated Australia’s Alexei Popyrin 6-3, 6-2, 7-6 in the first-round match played at Court Philippe-Chatrier. The 34-year-old was seen at his best in the first set and he managed to win it easily, not giving his Australian counterpart any chance. With the victory in the first set, Nadal recorded his 300th set won at the Roland Garros.

The French Open defending champion then carried on with his momentum and he wrapped the second set in a jiffy, and he was just one set away from progressing to the second round.

Popyrin gave a tough fight in the third set and he even went on to take a 5-2 lead, but Nadal showed his class and he managed to stage a comeback to win the third set and progress to the second round.

On Monday, Swiss tennis maestro Roger Federer stormed into the second round of the ongoing French Open. Federer defeated Uzbekistan’s Denis Istomin 6-2, 6-4, 6-3 in the first-round match played at Court Philippe-Chatrier.

On Sunday, Dominic Thiem was knocked out of the French Open after he lost his first-round match against Pablo Andujar.

Andujar came from behind to erase a two-set deficit to upset the Austrian No.4 seed 4-6, 5-7, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4. It was Thiem’s first loss in the opening round of the French Open.

Andujar, who is ranked 68 in the world, fought back from two sets down and it earned him the 150th tour-level match-win of his career. He had defeated Federer en route to the Geneva semi-finals two weeks ago.