Well, stopwatches in . . . er . . . hand Watch the clock, darling – Brits last longest at sex . . . now, I’m not clear if it’s with or without foreplay but evidently five minutes is plenty: “While British men took on average 7.6 minutes, the typical American took 7 minutes, while the Spanish lasted 5.8 minutes and the Dutch 5.1 minutes. The Turks produced the biggest surprise: on average they spend just 3.7 minutes at it.”

A scientific study to be published this week will suggest that British men are world leaders at sex, at least when they are measured against the clock. But that is not saying much considering that most men in other countries were at best five-minute wonders. After equipping hundreds of couples in various countries with stopwatches, researchers have for the first time amassed accurate data on the length of time that people spend having sex. Across all the countries studied, the average time for actual lovemaking was 5.4 minutes. Around that figure, however, the researchers found considerable variations related to age and nationality. While British men took on average 7.6 minutes, the typical American took 7 minutes, while the Spanish lasted 5.8 minutes and the Dutch 5.1 minutes. The Turks produced the biggest surprise: on average they spend just 3.7 minutes at it. In all the countries studied there was no significant difference in the timings whether the men were using condoms or not. In the research, to be published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine, British and Dutch scientists studied 500 couples aged over 18 in the five countries. “Sexual events were stopwatch-timed over a four-week period and recorded,” says Dr Marcel Waldinger, a leading neuro-psychiatrist based at Utrecht University who led the research. The findings also revealed how the time from start to finish of sex decreased with age, from an average of 6.5 minutes for men aged 18-30 to 4.3 minutes for those over 51. The researchers say the findings indicate that male sexual functioning varies significantly between healthy individuals, and there is no easy definition of what should be classified as average sexual performance or premature ejaculation. “The wide range among normal men points to a physical rather than a psychological cause for premature ejaculation,” said Waldinger. “The results will help to lift the taboo over premature ejaculation because they show that men are indeed different from one another.” Just why there are significant national differences is not clear and the researchers plan bigger studies and yet more research to find an explanation.

Evidently, it’s like race training, as we practice more and get more experience, we get faster. Too bad it’s not that kind of a race though.