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Timed distance runs were administered to a random sample of 2,683 schoolchildren aged 7--16 years. Oxygen uptake was then measured during level treadmill running over a range of submaximal speeds in a randomly selected subsample of 134 children with approximately equal representation according to age and sex. The VO2--running speed relationship was found to be related to age with the younger children having a greater VO2 per kg body weight than the older children when running at the same absolute speed. Based on the relationship found between measured VO2max and VO2max predicted according to field test performance, corrected for age-related differences in running efficiency, VO2max was predicted for all 2,683 children. When expressed per kg of body weight, VO2max was highest in girls at age 11 (approximately 44 ml/kg) and in boys at age 14 (approximately 54 ml/kg); however, differences among ages were nonsignificant. At all ages VO2max for the boys was significantly higher than that for the girls. At all ages, values were higher than those previously reported for Canadian schoolchildren.
MacDougall et al. (Mon,) studied this question.