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"When it's hot, I can focus on my running, I just think about running. When it's cold, my mind has to work hard, to confirm that I'm ready, to calm down, to lose the fear of hurting myself," confesses the American sprinter

Trayvon Bromell

and opens the paradox of these Games in athletics. The humid heat in Tokyo, incessant, sticky, is a punishment for long-distance runners, who suffer, who sweat, who don't know what to do to cool off, but it is a gift for sprinters.

As demonstrated this Saturday in the women's 100-meter final with the record of the Jamaican

Elaine Thompson-Herah

and in the men's series of the same distance, with four men under 10 seconds, these Games will be run much. Maybe even this Sunday in the final (9.50pm) someone can come even slightly closer to

Usain Bolt's

world record

(9.58 seconds). One explanation is in the feet, as it happens in the marathon, in those new models of shoes with a carbon fiber plate that allow runners to take off after each stride. But another explanation, more natural, more romantic, is in the environment.

"The heat and humidity confer two advantages to sprinters and, to a lesser extent, to jumpers and even to throwers. First, a physiological advantage. When you are warm all your neuromuscular connections work better and the risk of injury is This is why swimmers, for example, wear a tracksuit and even a sweatshirt right up to the moment they jump into the pool. And secondly, a biomechanical advantage. Tokyo the density of the air is reduced, that is, it offers less aerodynamic resistance. It seems difficult to understand, but it is very easy: the air particles separate and the bodies pass through them better. In the slower modes it is not noticeable, but how much The faster you go, the more it shows, it is exponential.And if you reach 35 or 36 or 37 km / h as sprinters do, the effect is considerable ", explains the physiologist

Pedro L. Valenzuela

, researcher in Health Sciences at the University of Alcalá de Henares (UAH).

Up to 1% profit

According to the latest studies, the gain from temperature and humidity can reach 1% and that, in speed, is outrageous.

In the case of the Thompson-Herah brand this Saturday, 1% would be 16 hundredths.

That - and many other things - explains why most sprinters come from hot and humid places like Jamaica and the southern United States (Florida, Texas, California).

That -and the altitude, above all- explains the records that were in the 1968 Mexico Games, when the records of 100 meters, 200 meters and long jump in the male and female category were broken.

In the Osaka World Cup in 2007 there were already excellent records and if it did not happen more recently, for example, in the Doha World Cup in 2019 it was because in the Khalifa Stadium they put the air conditioning to everything it gave and changed the conditions. "Then with regard to meteorology there are many myths. There is one that points out that on days of electrical storms, which are also very common in Japan, you run faster, but there is no scientific basis for that. Lightning and good lightning have ever coincided times, but they have only been that, coincidences ", concludes Valenzuela, who hopes that, for example, someone will come down this Sunday in the men's final of the 100 meters of 9.80 seconds, something that in recent years only two men have achieved :

Christian Coleman

and Bromell.

The first is not due to suspension and the second is the great favorite, although this Saturday in the series he left many, many doubts.

He went through times and gave the predictions of victory to his compatriots

Fred Kerley

and

Marvin Bracy

or to the Canadian

André De Grasse

.

With so much heat and so much humidity, who knows when the timer will stop.

The atmosphere - like the sneakers, yes, yes - is in your favor.

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