KINANTHROPOMETRY Somatotype Characteristics of Indian National Canoeists and Kayakers

piragüistas y kayakistas masculinos mientras que para las mujeres fue 5,9(±1,6)- 4,7(±1,1)-2,0(± 1.1). Por lo tanto, los canoistas y kayakistas nacionales indios masculinos tenían en promedio un somatotipo mesomorfo equilibrado, mientras que las contrapartes femeninas eran endomorfas mesomórficas. La musculatura media de los piragüistas y kayakistas masculinos y femeninos fue moderada. Conclusiones: El somatotipo mesomorfo ectomorfo es el tipo de cuerpo ideal para un deportista de deportes acuáticos. Además de las características del somatotipo, la musculatura de un atleta representa la fuerza muscular que es un factor importante para el buen desempeño en los deportes acuáticos y genera la energía necesaria para remar. La musculatura moderada de los canoistas y kayakistas indios, tanto masculinos como femeninos, podría obstaculizar el buen desempeño en escenarios internacionales como los Juegos Olímpicos y los Juegos de la Commonwealth. Por lo tanto, los piragüistas y kayakistas indios deberían mejorar su musculatura con un entrenamiento y una nutrición adecuados.


Introducción
Canoeing and Kayaking are two famous sports throughout the world and are the part of Summer Olympics under the discipline Canoe Sprint. In canoeing, the athlete paddles on one side kneeling on one knee whereas in Kayaking athlete paddles on both left and right sides in a sitting position. Athletes have to compete to finish a linear course of 200m, 500 m, and 1000 m. Flatwater sprint racing and Slalom are part of Olympic sports besides other competitive disciplines. On the other hand, White water racing, canoe sailing, and freestyle are non-Olympic competitions played in different countries (Hamano et al, 2015). Canoeing and Kayaking are "upper body sports," demanding specific morphological-functional characteristics on this part of the athletes (Mann and Kearney, 1980;Ackland et al, 2003). Canoeing and Kayaking are sports where physical characteristics, body size, and shape (somatotype) are very important factors besides other factors like Physical, Physiological, Mechanical, technical, and skill factors. In physical factors, body shape and size, height, weight, and segmental length including good muscle mass are very important to generate sufficient energy and force during paddling and gain more mechanical advantages. Long arms with greater shoulder width are very advantageous to create a more mechanical force to drive the canoe and kayak forward pushing the flatwater back. In India, Canoeing and Kayaking are very young sports compared to other sports. It started in 1986 under the Sports Authority of India Special area games projects. The performances of Indian Senior athletes in water sports like Canoeing and Kayaking are not significant in comparison with international standards. The position of Indian Kayakers and Canoeists based on performance were very poor, especially in the Olympics, though it is a popular sport in India. But, the performances of Kayakers and Canoeists under 23 yrs of age are good at Asian levels. In Canoe Sprint Indian U-23 team is in 4 th rank at the Asian level (U23 Canoe and Para Canoe Asian Championship 2023). Though Canoeing and Kayaking are very popular water sports games in India, to date there is no such study on the somatotype of Indian Canoeists and Kayakers especially on national level players. Thus, the aim of the present study was to find out the somatotypes of Indian National level Canoeists and Kayakers and compare them with their international counterparts.

Materials and Methods
Participants 11 male and 16 female national-level canoeists and Kayakers were studied in the present study. All were active members of the Indian national team and active in regular practices.

Anthropometrical measurements
Anthropometric measurements were measured on the same day for each player in the same session to avoid technical error of measurement (TEM) with an accredited anthropometrist, accredited by ISAK (International Society for the Advancement of Kinanthropometry). The method described in the International Society for The Advancement of Kinanthropometry manual (ISAK 2019) was followed. Stature was measured with a stadiometer graduation up to 1 mm and body mass was measured with an electronic weighing scale. Skin fold thicknesses were measured with a Harpenden Skinfold caliper (Bety International, UK). Anthropometric tape (CESCORF, Brazil) was used for measuring girth while a sliding caliper (CESCORF, Brazil) was used to measure bone diameters. Heath -Carter (1967)

Discussion
Performance in sports depends on the physical characteristics as well as body shape and size (somatotype) of the athletes in most of the sports especially in water sports where body shape and size have a great impact on creating force during paddling. Different studies revealed that the nature and level of performance influence the degree of association with Somatotypes (Carter, 1970;Carter & Heath, 1990). Somatotype quantification of an athlete might have an impact on the performance level and improve the understanding of biomechanical limitations and physiology of performance (Carter 1990). Male Canoe and Kayak paddlers at Montreal (1976) Olympics exhibited a somatotype of 1.5 (± 0.5)-5.2 (± 0.8)-3.1 (±0.9) (Carter,1984). Alacid et al. (2015) worked on elite young Kayakers and Canoeists in Spain and reported an average somatotype of 2.7-4.8-3.1 for the young Kayakers, whereas that of Canoeists was 2.6-4.5-3.2. They observed that the young Spanish male paddlers (13 and 14 yrs. old) were less lean, and less muscular than the Olympic sprint (1.6-5.7-2.2) and Slalom (1.7-5.4-2.5) paddlers (Ackland et al.,2003;Ridge et al.,2007).
The average somatotype of Indian national male Canoeists and Kayakers was 3.4(±0.9)-5.0(±0.8)-2.9(±1.0) with a range of 2.2-4.9 for Endomorphy, 3.3 -6.3 for Mesomorphy and 1.5 to 4.5 for Ectomorphy whereas that of Indian national female Canoeists and Kayakers was 5.9(±1.6)-4.7(±1.1)-2.0(±1.1) with a range of 2.5-8.4 for Endomoprhy , 3.0 -7.3 for Mesomorphy and 0.5-3.9 for Ectomorphy. Male Canoeists and Kayakers were Balanced mesomorph in average whereas Female Canoeists and Kayakers were Mesomorphic Endomorph in average (Table  1, Fig 1 and Fig 2). The average mesomorphy component of Indian national male Canoeists and Kayakers were more than Greek, Polish, British, and Spanish paddlers but less than Turkish, European, and Lithanian paddlers. The average muscularity in terms of Mesomorphy component of Indian Female paddlers was higher than the paddlers of Greece (Table 1). But the Indian national female paddlers were more endomorphic than the paddlers of different countries ( Table 1). Most of the Indian female paddlers were with higher endomorphy components with less muscularity which was reflected in the somatochart (Fig 2). Indian male paddlers were with moderate muscularity but most of them were slightly with fatty characteristics (Fig 1). It is well known that in athletic performance Ectomorphic Mesomorph body type is preferable to other body type characteristics for good performance (Carter and Heath, 1990). But Indian national paddlers did not have such characteristics whereas the international paddlers had (Fig 3).