ArticleScientific reports2024
Analysis of over 1 million race records shows runners from East African countries as the fastest in 50-km ultra-marathons.
Article in Scientific reports, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 7 citations in OpenAlex.
- Coronary Artery Disease in Masters Athletes: A Systematic Review.Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2026Pooled it
- Athletes' origin trends in participation and performance of master runners in the New York City marathon (1999-2024): a sex- and age-group analysis.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Association between running economy and VOBMC research notes · 2025Article
- Explaining basketball game performance with SHAP: insights from Chinese Basketball Association.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Article
- Freestyle master's swimming: Nationality, sex, and performance trends in World Aquatics competitions (1986-2024).PloS one · 2025Article
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Authors and funding
12 authors at 10 institutions in 6 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The 50-km ultra-marathon is a popular race distance, slightly longer than the classic marathon distance. However, little is known about the country of affiliation and age of the fastest 50-km ultra-marathon runners and where the fastest races are typically held. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate a large dataset of race records for the 50-km distance race to identify the country of affiliation and the age of the fastest runners as well as the locations of the fastest races. A total of 1,398,845 50-km race records (men, n = 1,026,546; women, n = 372,299) were analyzed using both descriptive statistics and advanced regression techniques. This study revealed significant trends in the performance of 50-km ultra-marathoners. The fastest 50-km runners came from African countries, while the fastest races were found to occur in Europe and the Middle East. Runners from Ethiopia, Lesotho, Malawi, and Kenya were the fastest in this race distance. The fastest 50-km racecourses, providing ideal conditions for faster race times, are in Europe (Luxembourg, Belarus, and Lithuania) and the Middle East (Qatar and Jordan). Surprisingly, the fastest ultra-marathoners in the 50-km distance were found to fall into the age group of 20-24 years, challenging the conventional belief that peak ultra-marathon performance comes in older age groups. These findings contribute to a better understanding of the performance models in 50-km ultra-marathons and can serve as valuable insights for runners, coaches, and race organizers in optimizing training strategies and racecourse selection.
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