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ObjectivesTo describe the injury characteristics of male youth athletes exposed to year-round athletics programmes.MethodsInjury surveillance data were prospectively collected by medical staff in a cohort of youth athletics athletes participating in a full-time sports academy from 2014–2015 to 2018–2019. Time-loss injuries (>1 day) were recorded following consensus procedures for athletics. Athletes were clustered into five event groups (sprints, jumps, endurance, throws and non-specialised) and the number of completed training and competition sessions (athletics exposures (AE)) were calculated for each athlete per completed season (one athlete season). Injury characteristics were reported overall and by event groups as injury incidence (injuries per 1000 AE) and injury burden (days lost per 1000 AE).ResultsOne-hundred and seventy-eight boys (14.9±1.8 years old) completed 391 athlete seasons, sustaining 290 injuries. The overall incidence was 4.0 injuries per 1000 AE and the overall burden was 79.1 days lost per 1000 AE. The thigh was the most common injury location (19%). Muscle strains (0.7 injuries per 1000 AE) and bone stress injuries (0.5 injuries per 1000 AE) presented the highest incidence and stress fractures the highest burden (17.6 days lost per 1000 AE). The most burdensome injury types by event group were: bone stress injuries for endurance, hamstring strains for sprints, stress fractures for jumps, lesion of meniscus/cartilage for throws and growth plate injuries for non-specialised athletes.ConclusionAcute muscle strains, stress fractures and bone stress injuries were identified as the main injury concerns in this cohort of young male athletics athletes. The injury characteristics differed between event groups.

Introduction Age and sport specialization are two of the most important factors that can impact an athlete's flexibility, but their influence during adolescence in youth athletics hasn’t yet been investigated. Material and methods Retrospective analysis of the lower limb flexibility assessments in the athletics squad of a full-time sports academy in the Middle East for nine consecutive seasons (2006/07 to 2014/15). Flexibility data were analyzed for eight lower limb muscle groups (mean value±standard deviation) in four athletics events (throws, sprints & jumps, distance running and non-specialized) and seven age groups (categorized yearly from under 13 to above 18 years old). Total lower limb flexibility (TF) was calculated by summating all individual muscle group values and comparisons were made between age groups and athletics events with statistical significance set at p0.05). A weak inverse correlation (r=−0.21, p 0.05). Throwers were found to be significantly less flexible (1091±93) than distance runners (1227±95), sprints & jumps (1186±80) and non-specialized athletes (1178±78); distance runners displayed greater hip external rotators flexibility than any other group (p

Injuries are common in elite adolescent athletics, but few studies have addressed risk factors for injury. Growth and maturation are potential risk factors in this population; however, the current body of literature is both inconclusive and considered at high risk of bias. The aim of this study was therefore to examine whether growth rate, maturity status, and maturity tempo are associated with injury risk in an elite sports academy. Anthropometric, skeletal maturity and injury data collected prospectively over four seasons (117 athlete-seasons) were included in the analyses. Growth rate for stature was associated with greater risk of bone (incidence rate ratio (IRR): 1.5 per one standard deviation increase above the mean; 95% CI: 1.1-1.9) and growth plate injuries (IRR: 2.1; 1.5-3.1). Growth rate for leg length was associated with greater overall injury risk (IRR: 1.3; 1.0-1.7) as well as the risk of bone (IRR: 1.4; 1.0-1.9) and growth plate injuries (IRR: 2.1; 1.4-3.0). Athletes with greater skeletal maturity, expressed as skeletal age (IRR: 0.6 per year; 0.5-0.9) and percentage of predicted mature height (IRR: 0.8 per percent increase; 0.7-1.0), were less prone to growth plate injuries. Rate of change in skeletal age was associated with an increased risk of bone injuries (IRR: 1.5; 1.0-2.3). The results of this study suggest that rapid growth in stature and leg length, skeletal maturity status, and maturity tempo represent risk factors for certain injury types in adolescent athletics.

Purpose:To analyze the influence of training exposure and the utility of self-report questionnaires on predicting overuse injuries in adolescent endurance athletes.Methods:Five adolescent male endurance athletes (15.7 ± 1.4 y) from a full-time sports academy answered 2 questionnaires (Recovery Cue; RC-q and Oslo Sports Trauma Research questionnaire; OSTRC-q) on a weekly basis for 1 season (37 wk) to detect signs of overtraining and underrecovery (RC-q) and early symptoms of lower-limb injuries (OSTRC-q). All overuse injuries were retrospectively analyzed to detect which variations in the questionnaires in the weeks preceding injury were best associated. Overuse incidence rates were calculated based on training exposure.Results:Lower-limb overuse injuries accounted for 73% of total injuries. The incidence rate for overuse training-related injuries was 10 injuries/1000 h. Strong correlations were observed between individual running exposure and overuse injury incidence (r2 = .66), number of overuse injuries (r2 = .69), and days lost (r2 = .66). A change of 20% or more in the RC-q score in the preceding week was associated with 67% of the lower-limb overuse injuries. Musculoskeletal symptoms were only detected in advance by the OSTRC-q in 27% of the episodes.Conclusion:Training exposure (especially running exposure) was shown to be related to overuse injuries, suggesting that monitoring training load is a key factor for injury prevention. Worsening scores in the RC-q (but not the OSTRC) may be an indicator of overuse injury in adolescent endurance runners when used longitudinally.

Objectives: To establish skeletal age and maturity status in highly trained adolescent track and field athletes and to investigate the relationship between maturation status and different type of injuries. Methods: 72 adolescent track and field athletes from different athletic disciplines (long distance n=15, sprints n=16, jumps n=10, throws n=12, combined events n=9, non-specialized n=10) belonging to an elite sport academy full time between 2013 and 2016 were selected for the study. An electronic medical record for musculoskeletal injuries was designed according to international standards for athletics, and skeletal age and maturity status were determined at the beginning of each season using FELS method, athletes being defined as early matures (EM), late matures (LM) or normo-matures (Norm) according to the difference between chronological and skeletal age. Results: A total number of 195 injuries with an incidence of 7 injuries per 1000 h of training exposure were recorded in 72 athletes (15±1.7y, 169.5±9.9 cm, 61.4±17.9 kg, 215±64 training hours per season). A vast majority of athletes were early mature (EM=78%, Norm= 12%, LM= 10%). 98% of athletes in jumps, sprints, throws and combined events were EM, while a predominance of Norm (40%) and LM (40%) athletes was observed in the long distance group. A larger overuse injury incidence was observed in LM (4.1 inj/1000 h) and Norm (5.1 inj/1000 h) compared to early mature athletes (2.8 inj/1000 h). Apophysitis was the most common overuse injury, being significantly associated to maturation status (LM=4.1 inj/1000 h, Norm= 2.6 inj/1000 h, EM= 0.9 inj/1000 h; pConclusion: A predominance of late mature athletes was observed in long distance runners compared to all the other disciplines, and the risk of overuse injuries might increase when late mature athletes are exposed to large amounts of training during adolescence. Adapting training to maturation status and not to chronological age classical categories might reduce injury risk in adolescent track and field athletes.