Black athletes currently dominate long-distance running events in South Africa. In an attempt to explain an apparently superior running ability of black South African athletes at distances > 3 km, we compared physiological measurements in the fastest 9 white and 11 black South African middle-to long-distance runners. Whereas both groups ran at a similar percentage of maximal O2 uptake (%VO2max) over 1.65-5 km, the %VO2max sustained by black athletes was greater than that of white athletes at distances > 5 km (P < 0.001). Although both groups had similar training volumes, black athletes reported that they completed more exercise at > 80% VO2max (36 +/- 18 vs. 14 +/- 7%: P < 0.005). When corrections were made for the black athletes' smaller body mass, their superior ability to sustain a high %VO2max could not be explained by any differences in VO2max, maximal ventilation, or submaximal running economy. Superior distance running performance of the black athletes was not due to a greater (+/- 50%) percentage of type I fibers but was associated with lower blood lactate concentrations during exercise. Time to fatigue during repetitive isometric muscle contractions was also longer in black runners (169 +/- 65 vs. 97 +/- 69 s; P < 0.05), but whether this observation explains the superior endurance or was due to the lower peak muscle strength (46.3 +/- 10.3 vs. 67.5 +/- 18.0 Nm/l lean thigh volume; P < 0.01) remains to be established.

The year 1989 will in future generations be known as the annus mirabilis, not only as far as developments in Eastern Europe are concerned, but also within the context of South African politics. The September general elections for the tricameral Parliament marked a turning point in the direction of governmental policies. Nowhere has the changing mood been more clearly demonstrated than in the streets of the cities and towns. A countrywide spate of protest marches has occurred since the historic first government-approved peaceful anti-apartheid march in Cape Town on 13 September 1989, and these have become the most visible symptom of the advance to the so-called ‘new South Africa’.

A DNA polymorphism of the nuclear-encoded subunit Va of the human cytochrome c oxidase (COX), a mitochondrial respiratory enzyme, is reported. No polymorphism was detected in genes for the subunits IV and Vb of the same enzyme.

Impairment and disability assessment on psychiatric grounds has always been subjective, controversial and at best, a difficult task. The South African Society of Psychiatrists (SASOP) needs to be congratulated, firstly on being instrumental in the publication of the first ‘Guidelines to the Management of Disability Claims on Psychiatric Grounds’ 1 in 1996, and secondly on following this up with an improved and revised version in May 2002.