Suchergebnisse

International audience ; All over the world, sports have been known to bring social cohesionat the individual, family and socio-economic development to a country. Over the years, in Kenya, athletics have promoted development, aesthetic value and recognition to the country and individuals as well. Despite the positive impact athletics can have on development to a country and individuals, studies have shown that athletes do not receive much psychosocial support to reach their full potentials and participate effectively in the general development of the country. This study examined the psychosocial challenges facing athletes in Eldoret, Kenya. The study specifically investigated individual-related psychosocial challenges; family and community-related psychosocial challenges facing athletes; and the coping strategies devised by athletes to deal with psychosocial problems in the study area.The study was informed by Social Breakdown Theory (SBT) theory. The study used descriptive research design. The study targeted medium and long distance runners in Eldoret and limited itself to 99 professional athletes from 8 locations that are major sources of athletes in Eldoret through simple random sampling. The study used snowball sampling in selecting key informants (elite athletes) from each selected location and government officials from the sports ministry. Both quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection were used. The study employed both qualitative and quantitative data analysis. In qualitative analysis, the data was presented by use of quotes and narrative descriptions. Quantitative analysis involved derivation of statistical descriptions and interpretation of data by use of descriptive statistics that purely relied on numerical values. The study found that athletes (medium and long-distance runners), have not been given much psychosocial support. Instead, they are exposed to much vulnerability aggravated by lack of social acceptance, over-dependence by close kin, isolation, lack of mentorship and peer ...

International audience ; All over the world, sports have been known to bring social cohesionat the individual, family and socio-economic development to a country. Over the years, in Kenya, athletics have promoted development, aesthetic value and recognition to the country and individuals as well. Despite the positive impact athletics can have on development to a country and individuals, studies have shown that athletes do not receive much psychosocial support to reach their full potentials and participate effectively in the general development of the country. This study examined the psychosocial challenges facing athletes in Eldoret, Kenya. The study specifically investigated individual-related psychosocial challenges; family and community-related psychosocial challenges facing athletes; and the coping strategies devised by athletes to deal with psychosocial problems in the study area.The study was informed by Social Breakdown Theory (SBT) theory. The study used descriptive research design. The study targeted medium and long distance runners in Eldoret and limited itself to 99 professional athletes from 8 locations that are major sources of athletes in Eldoret through simple random sampling. The study used snowball sampling in selecting key informants (elite athletes) from each selected location and government officials from the sports ministry. Both quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection were used. The study employed both qualitative and quantitative data analysis. In qualitative analysis, the data was presented by use of quotes and narrative descriptions. Quantitative analysis involved derivation of statistical descriptions and interpretation of data by use of descriptive statistics that purely relied on numerical values. The study found that athletes (medium and long-distance runners), have not been given much psychosocial support. Instead, they are exposed to much vulnerability aggravated by lack of social acceptance, over-dependence by close kin, isolation, lack of mentorship and peer ...

International audience ; All over the world, sports have been known to bring social cohesionat the individual, family and socio-economic development to a country. Over the years, in Kenya, athletics have promoted development, aesthetic value and recognition to the country and individuals as well. Despite the positive impact athletics can have on development to a country and individuals, studies have shown that athletes do not receive much psychosocial support to reach their full potentials and participate effectively in the general development of the country. This study examined the psychosocial challenges facing athletes in Eldoret, Kenya. The study specifically investigated individual-related psychosocial challenges; family and community-related psychosocial challenges facing athletes; and the coping strategies devised by athletes to deal with psychosocial problems in the study area.The study was informed by Social Breakdown Theory (SBT) theory. The study used descriptive research design. The study targeted medium and long distance runners in Eldoret and limited itself to 99 professional athletes from 8 locations that are major sources of athletes in Eldoret through simple random sampling. The study used snowball sampling in selecting key informants (elite athletes) from each selected location and government officials from the sports ministry. Both quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection were used. The study employed both qualitative and quantitative data analysis. In qualitative analysis, the data was presented by use of quotes and narrative descriptions. Quantitative analysis involved derivation of statistical descriptions and interpretation of data by use of descriptive statistics that purely relied on numerical values. The study found that athletes (medium and long-distance runners), have not been given much psychosocial support. Instead, they are exposed to much vulnerability aggravated by lack of social acceptance, over-dependence by close kin, isolation, lack of mentorship and peer ...

This paper analyzes the effects of new business formation on industry growth. Dynamic panel techniques are used to test two hypotheses. First, does hit-andrun competition secure efficiency in an industry? Second, do innovative startups lead to amplified innovations by diminishing the knowledge filter? The results illustrate how new businesses can be viewed as either mayflies or longdistance runners. -- Entry and exit ; growth ; hit-and-run competition ; innovation ; dynamic panel techniques

There is a need for clinical indicators that can be used to guide the treatment of Achilles tendon complaints in recreational runners. Diagnostic ultrasound has recently been introduced for clinical decision support in tendon pain management. The aim of this study was to determine whether tendon thickness and morphological changes in the Achilles tendon detected in ultrasound examinations are associated with local symptoms in middle-age recreational long-distance runners. Forty-two Achilles tendons (21 middle-aged runners) were investigated by ultrasound examination measuring tendon thickness and a morphology score indicating tendinosis. The Generalized Estimating Equations method was applied in multiple models of factors associated with reporting a symptomatic tendon. Eleven symptomatic and 31 asymptomatic Achilles tendons were recorded. In the multiple model that used tendon thickness measured 30 mm proximal to the distal insertion, an association was found between thickness and reporting a symptomatic tendon (p < 0.001; OR 12.9; 95% CI 3.1 to 53.2). A qualitative morphology score was not found to be significantly associated with reporting a symptomatic tendon (p = 0.10). We conclude that symptomatic Achilles tendons were thicker than asymptomatic tendons on ultrasound examination among recreational long-distance runners and that the importance of parallel morphological findings need to be further investigated in prospective studies.

Running is a basic form of human locomotion and one of the most popular sports worldwide. While the leg biomechanics of running have been studied extensively, few studies have focused on upper-body movement. However, an effective arm swing and longitudinal rotation of the shoulders play an important role in running efficiency as they must compensate for the longitudinal torques generated by the legs. The aim of this study is to assess the upper-body rotation using wearable inertial sensors and to elucidate its relation to energy expenditure. Eighty-six junior elite middle- and long-distance runners (37 female, 49 male) performed an incremental treadmill test with sensors attached on both shoulders, tibiae and the sacrum. The mean and total horizontal shoulder and pelvis rotations per stride were derived while energy costs were determined using respiratory gas analysis and blood sampling. Results show that shoulder and pelvis rotations increase with running speed. While shoulder rotation is more pronounced in female than in male runners, there is no sex difference for pelvis rotation. The energy cost of running and upper trunk rotation prove to be slightly negatively correlated. In conclusion, upper body rotation appears to be an individual characteristic influenced by a sex-specific body mass distribution.

AbstractKenyan long‐distance runners have for decades famously dominated international athletic competitions. Most of the aspiring runners live and train in the highlands of northwest Kenya, in Elgeyo Marakwet County, where they have access to competitive peer groups of budding athletes and an elaborate infrastructure of camps, coaches, and managers. The most promising and successful ones travel abroad to take part in international races, only to quickly return and continue training in the 'county of champions'. Meanwhile, Kenya is undergoing a rapid transformation, envisioned by the government's development plan, which promises to transform it into a 'globally competitive and prosperous country'. On the surface, competition is a self‐explanatory notion that drives the transnational sports industry and the state's development plan. However, ethnography of the county's capital, Iten, and its community of athletes reveals tensions: Kenyans take up, negotiate, appropriate, and challenge meanings of competition offered by the state and the sports industry on ecological, gendered, and moral grounds. Ethnography of ideologies of competition in Iten, conceptualized as moral, aesthetic, and gendered projects, complicates accounts of competition as a tool for global neoliberal governance. It also provides an alternative to analyses of African subjects' agency in global circulation of capital, people, and ideas, namely analyses subsumed under signs of marginality, dependence, and subjection.

Chronic oxidative stress in long-distance runners adversely affects conditioning. It is important to objectively assess and monitor oxidative stress, but measuring oxidative stress can be invasive or require skill to measure. Therefore, this study aimed to verify whether skin autofluorescence (SAF), a non-invasive, rapid, and easily calculable metric for calculating advanced glycation end products (AGEs), is useful as an oxidative stress biomarker. The subjects were 50 young Japanese male long-distance runners (aged 20.2 ± 1.2 years); 35 average-sized male university students (aged 19.8 ± 1.1 years) served as controls. The interactions and relationships between SAF and plasma pentosidine and oxidative stress markers (reactive oxygen metabolite-derived compounds [d-ROMs], biological antioxidant potential [BAP], and the BAP/d-ROMs ratio) in runners were examined, and SAF in the runners and controls was compared. The results suggest that plasma pentosidine in runners is associated with oxidative stress markers and that it can assess oxidative stress. However, as SAF was not associated with oxidative stress markers, it was not validated as one. In future, clarifying the factors affecting SAF may also clarify the relationship between SAF, plasma pentosidine, and oxidative stress markers.