Sports
Prehistoric Men Better Than Today’s Record Holders In Sports
Many prehistoric Australian aboriginals could have outrun world 100 and 200 metres record holder Usain Bolt in modern conditions.
Some Tutsi men in Rwanda exceeded the current world high jump record of 2.45 metres during initiation ceremonies in which they had to jump at least their own height to progress to manhood.
Any Neanderthal woman could have beaten former bodybuilder and current California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in an arm wrestle.
These and other eye-catching claims are detailed in a book by Australian anthropologist Peter McAllister entitled “Manthropology” and provocatively sub-titled “The Science of the Inadequate Modern Male.”
McAllister sets out his stall in the opening sentence of the prologue.
“If you’re reading this then you — or the male you have bought it for — are the worst man in history.
“No ifs, no buts — the worst man, period. As a class we are in fact the sorriest cohort of masculine Homo sapiens to ever walk the planet.”
Delving into a wide range of source material McAllister finds evidence he believes proves that modern man is inferior to his predecessors in, among other fields, the basic Olympic athletics disciplines of running and jumping.
His conclusions about the speed of Australian aboriginals 20,000 years ago are based on a set of footprints, preserved in a fossilised claypan lake bed, of six men chasing prey.
An analysis of the footsteps of one of the men, dubbed T8, shows he reached speeds of 37 kph on a soft, muddy lake edge. Bolt, by comparison, reached a top speed of 42 kph during his then world 100 metres record of 9.69 seconds at last year’s Beijing Olympics.
In an interview in the English university town of Cambridge where he was temporarily resident, McAllister said that, with modern training, spiked shoes and rubberised tracks, aboriginal hunters might have reached speeds of 45 kph.
“We can assume they are running close to their maximum if they are chasing an animal,” he said.
“But if they can do that speed of 37 kph on very soft ground I suspect there is a strong chance they would have outdone Usain Bolt if they had all the advantages that he does.
“We can tell that T8 is accelerating towards the end of his tracks.”
McAllister said it was probable that any number of T8’s contemporaries could have run as fast.
“We have to remember too how incredibly rare these fossilisations are,” he said. “What are the odds that you would get the fastest runner in Australia at that particular time in that particular place in such a way that was going to be preserved?”
Turning to the high jump, McAllister said photographs taken by a German anthropologist showed young men jumping heights of up to 2.52 metres in the early years of last century.
“It was an initiation ritual, everybody had to do it. They had to be able to jump their own height to progress to manhood,” he said.
“It was something they did all the time and they lived very active lives from a very early age. They developed very phenomenal abilities in jumping. They were jumping from boyhood onwards to prove themselves.”
McAllister said a Neanderthal woman had 10 percent more muscle bulk than modern European man. Trained to capacity she would have reached 90 percent of Schwarzenegger’s bulk at his peak in the 1970s.
“But because of the quirk of her physiology, with a much shorter lower arm, she would slam him to the table without a problem,” he said.
Manthropology abounds with other examples:
* Roman legions completed more than one-and-a-half marathons a day (more than 60 kms) carrying more than half their body weight in equipment.
* Athens employed 30,000 rowers who could all exceed the achievements of modern oarsmen.
*Australian aboriginals threw a hardwood spear 110 metres or more (the current world javelin record is 98.48).
McAllister said it was difficult to equate the ancient spear with the modern javelin but added: “Given other evidence of Aboriginal man’s superb athleticism you’d have to wonder whether they couldn’t have taken out every modern javelin event they entered.”
Why the decline?
“We are so inactive these days and have been since the industrial revolution really kicked into gear,” McAllister replied. “These people were much more robust than we were.
“We don’t see that because we convert to what things were like about 30 years ago. There’s been such a stark improvement in times, technique has improved out of sight, times and heights have all improved vastly since then but if you go back further it’s a different story.
“At the start of the industrial revolution there are statistics about how much harder people worked then.
“The human body is very plastic and it responds to stress. We have lost 40 percent of the shafts of our long bones because we have much less of a muscular load placed upon them these days.
“We are simply not exposed to the same loads or challenges that people were in the ancient past and even in the recent past so our bodies haven’t developed. Even the level of training that we do, our elite athletes, doesn’t come close to replicating that.
“We wouldn’t want to go back to the brutality of those days but there are some things we would do well to profit from.”
In a bid to make the Pillar of Associations Rivers state football tournament to become a permanent annual feature in Rivers state football calendar and a veritable platform for alternative career opportunity for Pillar members and members of Rivers football community, the Chairman of the tournament’s Organising Committee, Comrade Franklin Obute has stated that they were open to welcoming sponsorships from corporate entities and well meaning individuals.
Comrade Obute in an interview with news men on a match day at the ongoing competition at the Rivers State University’s ground said that the Pillar of Associations were ready to partner interested parties, who would be willing to invest in the competition through sponsorship towards elevating the quality and standard of the tournament.
According to him, “The Pillar of Associations tournament, due to the opportunities available, owing to the sheer number of businesses and members obtainable in the Pillar, would be a very attractive opportunity to exploit through sponsorship”.
He stated that there would be a conscious efforts toward sensitising the corporate and private environments to buy into the vision and objectives of the tournament. He explained that due to the open nature of the competition, whereby members of the association are allowed to engage any footballer from across the country, whether a business man or not, any sponsor would be able to enjoy unimaginable mileage.
“Every multinational company, private businesses should aspire to be part of the sponsorship of this tournament because there are so much benefits derivable therein, the coverage is very wide. You know that organising a football tournament of this nature is capital intensive, so, any sponsorship to add more value is welcomed”, he said.
The 2025 edition is currently ongoing and has reached the second round stage where matches are now being played on knockout basis, beginning from Friday.
By: Gabriel Nwanetanya
Some of the best golfers across Africa are expected to converge on the Ikoyi Club 1938 Golf Section for the three-day Ikoyi Ladies Golf Tournament holding from November 11 to 13.
The star-studded amateur open tournament is part of the activities lined up by the leadership of the club to celebrate the ladies’ tournament’s 50th anniversary.
Speaking at a world press conference at the Club’s headquarters in Ikoyi, the Ladies Club Captain, Mrs Peggy Onwu, explained that the tournament will offer opportunity for leading amateur golfers across 11 countries of the world to showcase their skills on the green lawn.
According to her, over 150 golfers have already registered for the open tournament, which will attract mouth-watering prizes, including a trophy, a premium ticket to the United States of America, among others.
The event will be preceded by ‘Twilight evening,’ which will see the participants play the golf game towards dawn, in a relaxed atmosphere with cocktails, networking and good music.
She thanked the various sponsors of tournament, including PWC, Delta Airline, Western Star, First EGP, among others, for identifying and keying into the Club’s goals and aspirations as part of their corporate social responsibilities.
Mrs. Onwu added that the event was not only a celebration of resilience, commitment, dedication and sacrifice, but a rare display of exemplary team spirit by all members of the Ladies Golf Section.
Thrilled by the presence of a Nigerian-born Italy- based golfer and fashion icon, Bali Lawal, as well as other professionals expected to grace the tournament, she promised that the tournament will be a memorable outing aimed at mentoring ladies keen on honing their golfing skills.
Speaking in the same vein, Vice Lady Captain, Annie Eimiakhena, explained that the tournament will entail three days of competitive outing showing skills, professional dexterity.
She added that participants and golfers will use the opportunity of the event to network among themselves, while a Masterclass will be held to educate would-be golfers on the dynamics of the game.
The Technical Manager of Rivers United FC of Port Harcourt, Finidi George has praised his boys (players) as they ran away with a point in the rescheduled match day nine of the Nigerian Professional Football League (NPFL) against Bendel Insurance.
According to him, before the game, he told his boys that they have to put up a good fighting spirit in the game, knowing that it will not be easy at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium, Benin City.
Finidi said this last Thursday in his post match interview with sports journalists and made available to Tidesports after they secured a goalless draw against Insurance.
He explained that in the first half, the game was 50-50 but in the second half after 15 to 20 minutes, my players pushed them back, looking for goal but they were able to hold them and got the draw.
“ From onset, I knew it was going to be a difficult game. Yes, we have to defend deep and get something. Kudos to my boys, they put up a good fighting spirit.
“ Despite the host creating good number of chances even hitting the crossbar but I must say that the draw is not a bad result.
“ Wasiu Falolu came closer in the second half but his long ranged shot just went over the bar.
“It was not a bad result but we have to move on and see how we can get good results from other matches” Finidi said.
By: Kiadum Edookor