Hiromasa Ueno is Graduate Student in Faculty of Sport and Health Science of Ritsumeikan University, and his research, which collaborated with Professor Tadao Isaka, Professor Akinori Nagano, and Assistant Professor Tadashi Suga in Faculty of Sport and Health Science of Ritsumeikan University, was accepted in International Journal of Sports Medicine. This study determined the lengths of forefoot bones in the big and second toes were significantly longer in endurance runners than in untrained subjects. Furthermore, the forefoot bone length of the big toe correlated significantly with the personal best time in the 5000-m race in endurance runners. These findings suggest that longer forefoot bones may be advantageous for achieving higher running performance in endurance runners.

Ueno H, Suga T, Takao K, Tanaka T, Misaki J, Miyake Y, Nagano A, and Isaka T (2017). Association between forefoot bone length and performance in male endurance runners. Int J Sports Med, in press.