Time runs out for world records

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".

'Drug use'

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.

WOMEN'S WORLD RECORDS 100m Florence Griffith Joyner (USA) 10.49 800m Jarmila Kratochvilova (TCH/CZE) 1:53.28 1500m Qu Yunxia (CHN) 3:50.46 Marathon Paula Radcliffe (GBR) 2:15:25

Professors Nevill and Whyte re-interpreted data of previous performances and concluded that records look 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 News website he did not envisage the current women's record for the 1500m - held by Qu Yunxia of China - ever being broken.

MEN'S WORLD RECORDS 100m Asafa Powell (JAM) 9.77 800m Wilson Kipketer (DEN) 1:41.11 1500m Hitcham El Guerrouj (MAR) 3:26:00 Marathon Paul Tergat (KEN) 2:04:55

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.

The report suggests the acceleration of world record times for women during the 1970s was "associated with the institutionalised approach to sports training, particularly in the former Eastern bloc".

It identifies the period of greatest gain in general world performances as taking place between the late 1940s to the mid-1960s.

"This period coincides with a shift in attitudes to a more professional approach to training and competition as evidenced by the introduction of professional coaches and the use of coaching and sport science," the report states.

But Professor Nevill stressed that the public would never lose interest in athletics, even if new records were no longer set.