Scientists seek to find secret of Jamaica’s sprint success
Four university professors from around the globe teamed up with the president and co-founder of a Jamaican track club to decipher what they feel is the secret behind the success of Jamaica’s top sprinters.
Robert Trivers, an evolutionary biologist and professor of anthropology and biology in the School of Arts and Sciences, at Rutgers University, along with co-authors Bernhard Fink of the University of Gottingen in Germany; Kristofor McCarty and Mark Russell of Northumbria University in England; Brian Palaestis of Wagner College in Staten Island, New York; and Bruce James of the MVP Track and Field Club in Kingston, Jamaica, have published their findings in the journal PLOS ONE.
The professors, along with James, looked at the degree of lower body symmetry in 74 elite Jamaican track and field athletes. The sprinters were all members of the MVP Track and Field Club, and included Shelly Ann Fraser-Pryce, who holds two Olympic gold medals in the 100-meter sprint, and Nesta Carter, the man with the fifth fastest 100-meter runs ever recorded.
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