The purpose of this study was to investigate whether track running specialisation could be associated with differences in the ability to exchange and remove lactate. Thirty-four male high-level runners were divided into two groups according to their specialty (100 - 400 m/800 - 1500 m). All performed a 1-min 25.2 km x h -1 event, followed by a 90-min passive recovery to obtain individual blood lactate recovery curves which were fitted to a bi-exponential time function: [La](t) = [La](0) + A 1 (1-e -gamma1t) + A 2 (1-e -gamma2t). The velocity constant gamma 1 which denotes the ability to exchange lactate between the previously worked muscles and blood was higher (p < 0.001) in middle-distance runners than in sprint runners. The velocity constant gamma 2 which reflects the overall ability to remove lactate did not differ significantly between the two groups. gamma 1 was positively correlated with the best performance over 800 m achieved by 16 athletes during the outdoor track season following the protocol (r = 0.55, p < 0.05). In conclusion, the lactate exchange ability seems to play a role on the athlete's capacity to sustain exercise close to 2-min-duration and specifically to run 800 m.