A pilot study on a potential relationship between leg bone length and sprint performance in sprinters; are there any event-related differences in 100-m and 400-m sprints?

Table 1 Physical characteristics and leg bone length variables in 100-m and 400-m specialized sprinters

	100-m sprinters	400-m sprinters	F	P	Cohen’s d
Body height, cm	173.2 ± 4.0	172.4 ± 4.1	0.088	0.437	0.198
Body weight, kg	64.6 ± 5.2	62.8 ± 4.1	1.462	0.173	0.384
Body mass index, kg/m²	21.5 ± 1.3	21.1 ± 0.9	3.925	0.232	0.358
Leg bone length
Femur, mm	432.0 ± 15.6	430.8 ±v12.2	1.588	0.737	0.086
Tibia, mm	359.7 ± 14.7	357.9 ± 13.0	1.678	0.620	0.130
Relative leg bone length
Femur, % of body height	24.9 ± 0.6	25.0 ± 0.4	3.868	0.696	0.196
Tibia, % of body height	20.8 ± 0.6	20.8 ± 0.6	0.210	0.984	0.000
Total leg bone length
Femur + Tibia, mm	791.7 ± 29.5	788.6 ± 23.2	2.311	0.663	0.117
Relative total leg bone length
Femur + Tibia, % of body height	45.7 ± 1.1	45.7 ± 0.8	3.466	0.850	0.000
Ratio between leg bones
Tibia/Femur, mm/mm	0.83 ± 0.02	0.83 ± 0.02	3.626	0.670	0.000

ISSN: 1756-0500