The age of peak running speed in endurance sports a SpringerOpen Journal

Full list of author information is available at the end of the articleDuring the last 20 years, ultra-marathon running be-came more and more popular (Da Fonseca et al. 2013; Hoffman 2010; Knoth et al. 2012). In particular, the par-ticipation of women and master athletes has increased over time in ultra-marathons (Hoffman and Weglin depends highly on the kind of the athletic challenge (Young and Starkes 2005). The mean age of top finishers performing tasks requiring endurance, experience and knowledge, such as ultra-marathon running is in the early 30s (Knechtle et al. 2012), whereas athletic chal-lenges such as short distance running were performed at a younger age in the early 20s (Schulz and Curnow * Correspondence: beat.knechtle@hispeed.ch(1,000 km). The ages were significantly different between 100 km and 200 km and between 100 km and 1,000 km. For men, the ages of the ten fastest ever were 34 ± 6 yrs (50 km), 32 ± 4 yrs (100 km), 44 ± 4 yrs (200 km), and 47 ± 9 yrs (1,000 km). The ages were significantly younger in 50 km compared to 100 km and 200 km and also significantly younger in 100 km compared to 200 km and 1,000 km. The age of the annual ten fastest wome