Do standard anticlockwise running tracks favour right-handed runners? Do right-handers win disproportionately more track events than left-handers? If not, why?
鈥� I recently had to visit a physiotherapist, who found that my right leg is about 1 centimetre longer than my left (I am right-handed.) He told me that almost all right-handed people have longer right legs, and conversely almost all left-handed people have longer left legs.
This gives right-handed people a natural lean to the left, so they may have an advantage on anticlockwise tracks, because it would seem to be easier for them to run round left-handed bends. This may even explain why anticlockwise tracks are used.
Advertisement
This hypothesis could be tested by examining records for races run over different distances. The 100 metres, being run on a straight track, should show no bias towards one group or the other, as should the marathon.
Records for in-between distances would be expected to show a bias in favour of right-handed runners.
Bob Watson, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, UK