2009 - End of Year Reviews – SPRINTS

MEN -

100m

9.58.

That number more or less sums up 2009 as far as 100m running is concerned. Usain Bolt cutting more than a tenth off of his one-year-old World record in the World Championships final was not just the greatest moment of the year but arguable of the whole history of 100m running. Such a massive improvement of the most prestigious of all World records should simply not be possible in this day and age.

But still it did happen and what made it even more remarkable was that it was not the product of exceptionally favourable conditions. There had been no talk about the track being exceptionally fast, the weather was good but not special in any way, the wind at 0.9 mps was well below the maximum allowable 2.0 – and Bolt's reaction time of 0.146 was just average (actually only the 6th fastest in the race). So the performance was due to one single factor: Usain Bolt was simply running much, much faster than any human being ever had before. Period.