Tym Glaser, Associate Editor - Sport

Dr Rachael Irving (left) and Vilma Charlton point out some of the finer points of their research during a recent interview at the University of the West Indies, Mona.- Nathaniel Stewart/Freelance Photographer

UNIVERSITY OF the West Indies (UWI) researchers Vilma Charlton and Dr Rachael Irving are searching for the proverbial needle in a haystack.

To compound their problem, they don't even know exactly what type of 'haystack' they are supposed to be looking through, either.

The determined duo has established that 'fast-twitch' muscle fibre is a key component on Jamaican sprinting success and that about 75 per cent of all Jamaicans have the genetic variation, which is about on par with research conducted on western Africans.

In places like the United States (about 60 per cent) and Australia (50 per cent) the prevalence of the gene (actinin 3) is considerably less.

However, even if only 50 per cent of Australians have the 'fast-twitch' make-up, how come they can't come up with a quality Olympic sprinter, let alone a triple Olympic champion and world record holder like Usain Bolt?

hunt for the 'trigger'

Therein lies the search that Charlton and Irving have embarked upon; the hunt for the 'trigger' that allows Jamaican athletes to make greater use of the 'fast-twitch' advantage than apparently any other country in the world.

"We have been talking to our collaborators in Glasgow, Scotland, and it's probably not genes," Irving said. "Jamaicans are at a genetical advantage, but so are west Africans and black Americans. We thought it was genetic ... that gives us an advantage, but it is not automatic.

"We are looking at nutrition, there is something switching on that gene or causing it to work optimally. It might be nutrition or it might be physical conditioning."

next phase

Charlton, herself a three-time Olympian, said the next phase of the team's research would be into the "foods we eat".

"What we eat is certainly very different to what Americans eat, but it is quite similar to what west Africans eat," she said. "You go to an Olympic village and you will see the African corner and they have beans and rice, yams and potato - they have a lot of that," she said.

"There's also the education system," she said. "We have a formal physical education programme in our schools, starting with the early childhood programme. Most of our athletes come out of this system. It's well-structured and formalised, so we definitely feel the emphasis we have put on physical education programmes is an advantage.

"Imagine if you did the same gene study in Trinidad or Antigua, they may have the same genetic make-up but their (PE) programme is not as strong."

Chimes in Irving: "That's called 'gene environmental effect'; something acting on the gene's function".

However, Jamaica's not the only country with well-established and strong school PE programmes, which sends us back to the kitchen table and also to the famous Cockpit country.

"We have done the analysis on yam and we have discovered lysine, which is an essential amino acid that drives muscle function, is found in higher concentration in yam than in potato and white rice. The antioxidant carotene is also found in high concentration in yams. There is something about the yam," said Irving.

"We also find that yam grown in the Cockpit country has a particular high nutritional value ... it may be something in the soil."

'When we looked at our data," Charlton said, "many of the athletes came from that area or their parents or grandparents did."

unlocking the riddle

Irving and Charlton, along with Professor Errol Morrison at UTech, are not working in a vacuum. Scientists and researchers around the world are scampering to unlock the riddle to 'fast-twitch' success - or find that needle.

It could be in the food, the conditioning of athletes, other yet unexplored genes or a myriad of other options - and the race is on in earnest to find it - or them.

To stay in the hunt, the Jamaicans are looking for sponsorship to keep their research afloat and set up a lab here - about $7 million over the next three years.

"The Japanese studied Asafa Powell and they are adapting their technique to fit what we have," Irving said. "We have to do this (research) or eventually people will take it and use what we have and maybe in 10 years we won't be that dominant (in sprinting)."

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