2.3.6. VAMEVAL Test

In order to assess the maximum aerobic speed (MAS), a running test was performed on a 200-m athletic track. This was administered as described by [34]. Blue cones were placed every 20-m at the lane line boundary of the track. Similarly, red cones were placed 2-m behind the blue cones. An examiner followed participants with a scoring table containing the beep times of the different levels, a stopwatch, and a whistle. The examiner made a short sound when the participant had to be next to the blue cone so that he could manage the running speed according to each level. At each whistle, the participant had to be within 2-m of the blue cones. When the participant did not follow the rhythm of the sound and was twice behind a red cone or when he stopped the race, the event was over. The maximum aerobic speed (MAS) corresponds to the level already finished. If the participant did not run the last stage for the full duration, then the method in [40] was used to calculate the MAS. The test started on the track at 8 km/h for 2 min, and for each stage of one minute, the speed increased by0.5 km/h.

Maximum aerobic speed in km/h was recorded. VO2max was calculated using the formula proposed by [41,42]: VO2max = 0.0324 × v <sup>2</sup>+ 2.143 <sup>×</sup> v + 14.49; where v is the speed of the last level expressed in km h−<sup>1</sup> and VO2max in mL kg−<sup>1</sup> min−<sup>1</sup> .
