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At the 2022 Commonwealth Games, Scottish long-distance star Eilish McColgan surged to gold medal glory in the 10,000m before going on to collect a silver over 5000m. Endless hours and miles of training allowed her to occupy two prominent steps on a prestigious podium in Birmingham.

Elsewhere, Ferdinand Omanyala and Elaine Thompson-Herah swept to glory over 100m for Kenya and Jamaica respectively, with their particular skill sets prioritising speed over stamina. For them, a moment in the spotlight lasts seconds rather than minutes or hours, but there is a place for both sprints and marathons in the world of athletics.

Elite performers

How, though, do the distances covered by stars of the road and track compare to the efforts of elite performers from other sports?

Novak Djokovic is an 11/8 favourite, according to the current outright tennis betting odds to prevail at the 2022 US Open, with the Serbian superstar aiming to build on his recent Wimbledon triumph. Many tennis betting predictions will be weighted in his favour when the action gets underway in New York, with an all-time great having mastered the art of maximising his physical attributes.

? x ???????@DjokerNole | @Wimbledon | #wimbledon pic.twitter.com/DPCpmSN43w

— ATP Tour (@atptour) July 10, 2022

In any given match, a tennis player can expect to cover around three miles. There are obvious exceptions to that rule, with gruelling five-set contests requiring finely-tuned professionals to push aching limbs a little further. Djokovic will be expecting to go deep into another Grand Slam event at Flushing Meadows, with the plan being to grace seven successful contests – allowing silverware to be lifted after running more than 20 miles.

That is very much marathon territory, although said exertions are spread over two weeks rather than a couple of hours. Another sport that requires plenty of graft to go with the guile is football, with top performers in that field averaging around seven miles covered per game.

Certain positions, such as all-action midfielders, cover more ground than others – with something wrong if your goalkeeper is having to run several miles – and those hard yards add up over the course of a tournament such as the World Cup or European Championship when the matches come thick and fast.

Dig deep

England’s women’s hockey team made history at this year’s Commonwealth Games, as they edged out Australia to claim a first gold medal, and that is another sport that requires plenty of fuel in the tank – with players covering over 5.5 miles a game.

What a Games!!

Birmingham 2022 was Team England’s most successful Games ever! In total we won 176 medals, two more than our previous highest tally in Glasgow 2014 and 40 more than four years ago on the Gold Coast!

We are so proud of all our athletes!#BringItHome pic.twitter.com/xC3V1iwStb

— Team England (@TeamEngland) August 10, 2022

That distance is similar to that covered during an 18-hole round of golf – depending on how wayward you are off the tee – while rugby players tend to tick past four miles per game through a combination of jogging and sprinting.

Basketball stars in the NBA also deliver bursts of speed, seeing them cover around 2.5 miles in a game, while a wide receiver in the NFL can expect to pass 1.25 miles per appearance. Sticking with the American theme, and reaching the opposite end of an energy scale, baseball players run even less – with there only 90 feet between bases – while endeavours in cricket depend on how many boundaries you hit or how much chasing is required in the field.