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A study
claims many athletic records are approaching their
limits |
World records in many athletic events are peaking
- and will not be broken unless athletes take drugs, say researchers.
The study, "Are there limits to running world records?", suggests
faster times may prove elusive.
The current women's 1500m record may never be broken, said Professor
Alan Nevill, without fundamental changes to the genetic structure of human
beings.
Prof Nevill says many running records are "already nearing their
limits".
The paper, co-written by Professor Nevill at the University of
Wolverhampton and Professor Greg Whyte from the English Institute of
Sports, challenges previous scientific research that there was no limit to
human performance and that women would eventually run as fast as men.
Professors Nevill and Whyte re-interpreted data of
previous performances and concluded that records set to plateau
.
"For the first time we have identified that there could be a limit to
performance and that world records will not continue to rise," said
Professor Nevill of the University of Wolverhampton.
"Many of the established men and women's middle and long distance
running records are already nearing their limits.
"The results, of course, assume that athletes in the future do not
benefit from scientific engineering or drug use."
Professor Nevill told the BBC he did not envisage the current women's
record for the 1500m - held by Qu Yunxia of China - ever being broken.
This was one of the races won by Kelly Holmes at last year's Athens
Olympics in a time of 3:57.90, well below Qu Yunxia's 3:50.46 set in
Beijing in 1993.
But Professor Nevill stressed that the public
would never lose interest in athletics, even if new records were
no longer set.
(Agencies) |
許多體育項目的世界記錄已經達到了頂峰，并且不會再被打破，除非運動運服用違禁藥物，研究人員說。
一篇題為《賽跑世界記錄是否有極限》的論文指出，跑得更快似乎不太可能。
阿蘭·內維爾教授說，如果不改變人類的基因結構，目前女子1500米跑的世界記錄也許很難被打破。
內維爾教授說許多賽跑世界記錄“已逼近極限”。
英國胡弗漢普頓大學的內維爾教授和英國體育學院的葛雷格·懷特教授合作撰寫了這篇論文，對之前的某些科學研究提出異議，那些研究認為人類的能力沒有極限，而且女性終將跑得和男性一樣快。
內維爾和懷特教授重新解釋了以前的比賽成績數據，并得出這樣的結論：世界記錄開始趨于穩定。
“我們第一次認識到人類的能力是有極限的，世界記錄不會一直向上攀升，”胡弗漢普頓大學的內維爾教授說。
“現有的許多男子和女子中長跑世界記錄已經接近極限了。”
“當然，這一結論的前提是將來運動員不會通過科學指導或服用藥物來提高成績。”
內維爾教授告訴英國國際廣播公司說他無法設想目前由中國選手曲云霞保持的女子1500米世界記錄有一天會被打破。
在去年的雅典奧運會上，英國選手凱莉o霍爾姆斯以3分57秒90的成績獲得了該項目的金牌，但這一成績遠遠落后于曲云霞1993年在北京創造的3分50秒46的世界記錄。
但是，內維爾教授強調說，即使沒有新的世界記錄誕生，人們也絕不會對田徑運動失去興趣。
(中國日報網站薛曉文編譯) |
Updated: 2005-11-10 09:24
