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.”
City Crime
‘NFF Conducted Federation Cup Draw Fairly’

The Nigeria Football Federation has defended the recent quarter-finals draw for the 2025 President Federation Cup, saying it was conducted in line with best global practices.
A member of the NFF Executive Committee Board, George Aluo, stated that criticism over venues for the quarterfinals was unfortunate.
Going by the fixtures released on Saturday by the football body, Abakaliki FC will take on Nasarawa United in Benin, Wikki Tourists will clash with Ikorodu City in Bwari, Abuja, Akwa United and Kwara United will fight it out in Enugu, just as Area 3, Abuja, will host the encounter between Rangers International and Plateau United. All matches are scheduled for May 3rd for the emergence of semifinalists in a leg affair.
However, there have been criticisms over the Ikorodu United vs Wikki Tourist tie billed for Abuja, with a section of the press saying the venue is skewed in favour of the Bauchi team.
Aluo, also the Chairman of the Nigeria National League (NNL), said: “Some of our media men need better education, and newsmen should not be like the fans out there on the streets. In the English FA Cup, it is always a one-legged pairing that can see a club like Arsenal host Manchester United at home”.
Sports
Act Sports Signs New Teqball Specialist Contract In Nigeria

A new contract that will see Act Sports Di Oyibo Limited managing the career of Nigerian teqball specialist, Victor Oyemade, has been signed in Lagos.
The deal gives exclusive rights to Act Sports to manage, and exercise power of attorney over issues relating to the player’s welfare as it concerns his transactions, engagement for professional, promotional, sponsorships, endorsements, and exhibition purposes.
In signing the document, both parties also agreed that proper safeguards would be put in place to protect and promote the player’s interest at all times.
Director of Act Sports, Di Oyibo Limited, Pastor Samuel Robinson Oyibo, excited about the deal, said it would benefit both parties in the area of spreading the message of the sport, as well as laying a firm foundation for his new client’s future.
“Teqball is one of the world’s fastest-growing ball sports, and Victor Oyemade is the face of the sport here in Nigeria and Africa. That is why we are excited about this partnership that gives Act Sports official authorisation to manage his career, just as it will lay the foundation for its rapid growth in our country,” Pastor Oyibo said.
Oyemade was no less excited about the deal, saying it would help his growth in the sport.
Sports
Nigeria Name Handball Squads For Zonal Champs
Coaches of Nigeria’s U-18 and U-20 women’s handball teams have released their final lists of 14 players ahead of the IHF Women’s Trophy Zonal Phase, which will be held in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, that commenced yesterday to end 24th of this month.
The two teams have been training at the Rowe Park Sports Centre, Yaba, Lagos, for close to two weeks and departed for the competition on Thursday.
Coach John Uzor of the national U-18 team has included Omole Joy of Defender Babes and her sister Omole Shola alongside Ojie Princess of Funad Academy alongside right back Faisat Balogun in the mix while Success Duru, Chetachi Ngaodurubie of COAS Babes and Sharon Okonkwo make the cut, amongst other players.
In the U-20 team, Coach Shittu Agboola has largely stuck with the players he has been grooming since their U-18 days. The team is led by Captain Chidera Ogbusimba alongside, her Rima Queens teammates the Samuel Sisters, Amina Mohammed and Joy Peters.
Israel-based Rahima Bello, Kehinde Babatunde of ASPAC HBC of Benin Republic and Esther Mathew, who is also based in Benin Republic, keep their places.
Coach Shittu believes his team will make Nigeria proud just as they did previously at the U-18 level.
“I am really upset that Taiwo Babatunde will not be part of the team for this competition as her school, Yaba College of Technology, insisted that they will not release her for national service because of examinations.
“We did everything humanly possible to secure her release and they didn’t care that it is a national service for the interest of Nigeria and the growth of sports. We have other players who are also students and they got a release from their schools but for no tangible reason, Yabatech refused to release Taiwo despite the fact that we did everything possible to secure her release. It’s sad and I hope the Federal Ministry of Education and the National Sports Commission will work in tandem so that schools will support our goal in making Nigeria proud in sporting events”.
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