List of Headings
- i The human activities which employ different kinds of muscle fibre
- ii The size of certain body parts affects human speed
- iii The limits of training on inherent human speed
- iv The reasons human running speed records are broken over time
- v An explanation of a well-known runner's racing success
- vi The effects of diet on muscle fibre activity
- vii An imagined race between a man and certain animals
- viii An informed estimate of the maximum possible human speed
- ix The ability of exceptionally big animals which allows them to run fast
Passage
Drag a heading to each paragraph.
1. If Usain Bolt, Jamaican sprinter and one of the fastest 100-metre runners of all time, raced the fifty fastest animals, he would come in around 28th, just ahead of the elephant. The cheetah, of course, would take the first-place gold and the prong-horned antelope the second-place silver.
2. Humans evolved considerable size and weight of limbs to keep an upright posture, which gave running speed great impact.
3. Peter Weyland subjected a group of elite runners to a series of rather complex tests. The findings of these trials suggest that humans should be biologically capable of running up to about 65 kph.
4. Especially fast larger animals take longer strides, making foot-ground contact time less critical. This points to the reasons behind Usain Bolt's achievements, because he uses longer strides and his feet remain on the ground less than his rivals.
5. This points to the reasons behind Usain Bolt's achievements, because he uses longer strides and his feet remain on the ground less than his rivals.
6. Because our genes determine the proportion of slow and fast muscle fibres we have, we are in a sense born with our top speed already determined.