Anthropometric characteristics are a non-negligible factor even in world's elite 100-m sprinters

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have simply shown correlation relationships between spatiotemporal variables and anthropometric characteristics. In case targeted only elite sprinter, there is a possibility that the relationship may differ from previous study. The purpose of this study was to clarify the relationship between anthropometric characteristics and spatiotemporal variables, and to assess the relative influence of determinant anthropometric characteristics on spatiotem-poral variables in world-class sprinters.METHODS: Study participants were 64 of 117 world-class sprinters who had a personal record of less than 9.99 seconds in a 100-m sprint. Correlations between the anthropometric characteristics and spatiotemporal variables were analyzed, and multiple linear regression analysis was performed to determine the ability of determinant anthropometric character-istics to predict spatiotemporal variables.RESULTS: Average step length was significantly positively correlated with height and weight, and average step fre-quency was significantly negatively correlated with height and weight. There were no significant correlations between spatiotemporal variables and BMI. Multiple linear regression revealed that both height and weight were significant pre-dictors of step length, and height was the only significant predictor of step frequency. The coefficients of determination (R2) for step length and step frequency were 0.423 and 0.354, respectively.CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that anthropometric characteristics such as height and weight are major determi-nants of step frequency and length even in world-class sprinters.