Neanderthals were sprinters rather than distance runners, study surprisingly suggests
(PHYSorg.com Archaeology & Fossils)

The image of Neanderthals as brutish and culturally unsophisticated has changed in recent years - they could make cave art, jewellery, complex stone tools and may have had language and cooked foods. Yes, they were extremely physically strong - certainly stronger than the vast majority of humans living today. And yes, they went extinct just after our own species entered their territories (albeit with a small amount of interbreeding). But neither fact means they were sluggish or cognitively inferior to us humans.