The aim of the present study was to investigate lower limb anthropometric and composition variables related to running economy (RE) and running performance in a homogeneous group of high level European distance runners. RE at the speeds of 14, 16 and 18 km·h -1 (189 ± 12; 188 ± 11; 187 ± 11 O2 ml·kg -1 IntroductionIn addition to different physiological parameters, several anthropometric and body composition variables are known to be associated with running performance in elite Caucasian middle-and long-distance runners (Arrese and Ostariz, 2006). For example, body height and mass (Maldonado et al., 2002), fat and fat free mass (Winter and Hamley, 1976), arm circumference (Knechtle et al., 2008), different lower limb skinfolds and circumferences (Arrese and Ostariz, 2006;Legaz and Eston, 2005;Tanaka and Matsuura, 1982) as well as the sum of three (Kong and de Heer, 2008) or six (Legaz and Eston, 2005) skinfolds have been related to distance running performance. However, there is equivocal data about how running economy (RE) is related to anthropometric and/or body composition variables. Runners with proportionally lower body mass concentrated in the extremities, particularly in the legs, would perform less work moving their body segments during running, if all other factors are unchanged (Myers and Steudel, 1985). Therefore, leg mass and the distribution of leg mass might be important characteristics in performance and RE of distance runners (Myers and Steudel, 1985). In contrast, no difference has been shown in RE between recreational athletes with similar body mass, but different body composition (Maciejczyk et al., 2015). Recent evidence (Mooses et al., 2015a) indicates that relatively longer legs are related to better performance, however, in a homogenous group of athletes RE has shown not to be related to performance (Foster et al., 1977 Mooses et al., 2015a;Saunders et al., 2004). Therefore, better understanding of the interaction between RE, VO2max, performance, body composition and anthropometrics of different level athletes as well as intensities is needed. To date, there is no consensus which factors are responsible for superior RE and how RE is related to VO2max. Thus, the aim of the present study was to investigate lower limb anthropometric and composition variables related to RE and running performance in a homogeneous group of high level European distance runners. It was hypothesized that relatively lighter and longer legs would be related to better RE at the speed of 14, 16 and 18 km·h -1 . The findings of this study could help explain a complex interaction between anthropometric characteristics, body composition and RE in high level running performance. Material and Methods ParticipantsHigh level male European distance runners (n = 15) were initially recruited to the study, however, 2 of them were excluded after the treadmill test due to surpassing the second ventilatory threshold (VT2) at the speed of 18 km·h -1 . Therefore, the number of the subjects included into the final analysis was 13 (Ta...