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At major championships, the interval between warm-up and race start includes time in a designated Call Room and can exceed 50\u00a0min, long enough to compromise the physiological benefits of the warm-up. Whilst this delay is not new, recent World Athletics technology regulations prohibit heated garments in the Call Room, and athletes must now enter the track wearing only their race kit, making muscle temperature and neuromuscular readiness harder to maintain. The addition of mixed relay events further increases exposure to repeated pre-race transition periods. This leading article therefore reviews the determinants of sprint performance most sensitive to the pre-race period and evaluates acute strategies that may help preserve or restore readiness on the day of competition. Particular attention is given to evidence-informed strategies that complement the main warm-up and can be implemented within current competition regulations. Passive heat maintenance and plyometric conditioning activities appear to offer the greatest practical relevance within current Call Room constraints, with maintenance of muscle temperature an important consideration for preserving sprint and power performance. While there is relevant supporting research, no study has simulated the exact demands of a major championship sprint event, and recommendations therefore rest on mechanistic rationale and applied practice as well as direct evidence. These include a same-day priming session ~\u20094\u20136\u00a0h before competition, passive insulation to attenuate muscle temperature decline during the transition period, and a brief plyometric or short acceleration stimulus 8\u201316\u00a0min before race start, with athletes encouraged to establish their individual responses in training and simulated competition.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1007\/s40279-026-02556-8","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,13]],"date-time":"2026-10-13T20:58:20Z","timestamp":1791925100000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Optimising Pre-race Physical Preparation for Sprint Events at Major Championships Under New Rule Changes and Competition Formats"],"prefix":"10.1007","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0008-4760-4342","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"James","family":"Aggett","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Craig","family":"Pickering","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jodie","family":"Cochrane Wilkie","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Megan E.","family":"Shephard","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Christopher J.","family":"Stevens","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"297","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,13]]},"reference":[{"issue":"4","key":"2556_CR1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"885","DOI":"10.1519\/JSC.0b013e31826520c3","volume":"27","author":"E T\u00f8nnessen","year":"2013","unstructured":"T\u00f8nnessen E, Haugen T, Shalfawi SA. 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The recommendations and interpretations presented reflect the collective expertise of this team in addressing practical pre-race preparation challenges for elite sprinters through their experience preparing Australia\u2019s elite sprinters for major competitions. The authors declare no financial competing interests. In the interests of full transparency, the authors disclose the following professional interests, which are relevant to the subject matter of this review. Craig Pickering is the Director of Performance Sustainability for Australian Athletics. Megan E. Shephard is employed by the Queensland Academy of Sport, and James Aggett is a Queensland Academy of Sport embedded research scholar supporting the preparation of elite track and field athletes. Jodie Cochrane Wilkie and Christopher J. Stevens have no conflicts of interest that are directly relevant to the content of this article. These roles inform the applied perspective presented in this review, as outlined in the positionality statement, but the authors report no interests that would be expected to bias the interpretation of the evidence presented.","order":1,"name":"Ethics","label":"Conflicts of Interest","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Declarations"}},{"value":"Not applicable.","order":2,"name":"Ethics","label":"Ethical Approval","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Declarations"}},{"value":"Not applicable.","order":3,"name":"Ethics","label":"Consent to Participate","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Declarations"}},{"value":"Not applicable.","order":4,"name":"Ethics","label":"Consent for Publication","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Declarations"}},{"value":"Not applicable.","order":5,"name":"Ethics","label":"Availability of Data and Material","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Declarations"}},{"value":"Not applicable.","order":6,"name":"Ethics","label":"Code Availability","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Declarations"}},{"value":"JA conceived the review, conducted the literature search and drafted the manuscript. CJS and JCW contributed to the conception and design of the review and critically revised the manuscript for important intellectual content. CP and MS contributed applied practitioner expertise informing the practical recommendations and critically revised the manuscript for important intellectual content. All authors have read and approved the final version of the manuscript and agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work.","order":7,"name":"Ethics","label":"Author Contributions","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Declarations"}}]}}