Web worldrec.info

Athletics: the world’s greatest 100m sprint race

What is the world’s greatest 100m sprint race? Of course any occasion where a world record is broken is special, but IMHO it has to offer more than that. To me, there are a few contenders.

It could be the 2004 Olympics, where for the first time, 4 men dipped below 9.90 seconds. This is reputedly the race with the fastest ever average time for the finishers: 9.93s. Check out the final score:
1. Justin Gatlin (USA) 9.85 s (Personal Best, World Record at that time is Maurice Greene’s 9.79s set in 1999)
2. Francis Obikwelu (Portugal) 9.86 s (African record?)
3. Maurice Greene (USA) 9.87 s (Season Best)
4. Shawn Crawford (USA) 9.89 s
5. Asafa Powell (Jamaica) 9.94 s
6. Kim Collins (Saint Kitt’s & Nevis) 10.00 S (Season Best)
7. Obadele Thompson (Barbados) 10.10 s
* Ghana Aziz Zakari (Ghana) (Did Not Finish)

donovan-bailey.jpg

At the 1996 Atlanta Olympics 100m final, Donovan Bailey (pic above) was slowest off the blocks, but still won the race in world record time. Top 5 finishers:
1. Donovan Bailey (Canada) 9.84 s (World Record)
2. Frank Fredericks (Namibia) 9.89 s
3. Ato Boldon (Trinidad) 9.90 s
4. Dennis Mitchell (USA) 9.99 s
5. Mike Marsh (USA) 10.00 s

My personal favourite will always be the 1991 World Championships, where 6 men clocked below 10 seconds. I believe this is the most number of athletes clocking <10 seconds in one race. It was won by Carl Lewis in world record time (9.86s). As usual he was slow initially, but pulled through at the end stages: he's probably the greatest ever 100m sprinter at the 70m-100m stages. Results:
1. Carl Lewis (USA) 9.86 s (World Record)
2. Leroy Burrell (USA) 9.88 s
3. Dennis Mitchell (USA) 9.91 s
4. Linford Christie (Great Britain) 9.92 s
5. Frank Fredericks (Namibia) 9.95 s
6. Ray Stewart (Jamaica) 9.96 s
7. Robson Da Silva (Brazil) 10.12 s
8. Bruny Surin (Canada) 10.14 s

Sources:
IAAF
Condellpark.com
Sprintic.com
Sprintingelite at geocities.com
myweb.lmu.edu
Sporting-heroes.net

Popularity: 2% [?]


Related posts

  • For only the second time ever, 6 men broke the 10-second barrier in a 100m sprint race
  • Breakers of the 10 second barrier in the 100m sprint
  • Unlikeliest 100m competitor at a World Championships in Athletics
  • Malaysia’s grooviest man
  • The most eagerly awaited, mouth-watering clashes at the 2008 Beijing Olympics
  • RSS feed | Trackback URI

    Comments »

    No comments yet.

    Name (required)
    E-mail (required - never shown publicly)
    URI

    Subscribe to comments via email
    Your Comment (smaller size | larger size)
    You may use <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong> in your comment.