Usain Bolt is a legend. FACT
Here at spikesmag.com we try not to bombard you with too many statistics. But we feel Usain Bolt’s 9.58 100m is worth a bit more analysis. So we've trawled the web to find a few interesting stats about his jaw-dropping world record.
In 1968 American Jim Hines set a world record of 9.95 at the Mexico City Games.
In 2005 Jamaica’s Asafa Powell posted a world record mark of 9.77 – an improvement of 0.18 in 38 years. Bolt has improved the 100m world record by 0.16 in just six months.
A breakdown of Bolt’s 100m performance in the Olympic Stadium reveals the following splits for every 20m. 0-20m (2.89) to 40m (4.64) to 60m (6.31) to 80m (7.92) and to 100m 9.58. Note,
the world indoor 60m record held by Maurice Greene stands at 6.39 – 0.08 slower than Bolt ran the first 60m in at the Olympic Stadium on Sunday night.
9.5 was first recorded for the 100 in 1929, that’s not the 100m, though, but 100 yards (which is 91.44m). That was achieved by American
Eddie Tolan in 1929.
Asafa Powell snared bronze in an almost pedestrian 9.84 in Berlin (compared to Bolt’s 9.58, that is). Yet just 13 years ago Canadian Donovan Bailey set a world record time of 9.84 at the Olympic Games in Atlanta. Oh, how the race has changed.
The fastest time a British athlete has ever run 100m is 9.87 by 1992 Olympic champion Linford Christie – 0.29 slower than Bolt ran in Berlin.
And to put his performance into context,
according to the IAAF scoring tables, Bolt’s 9.58 is worth a 19.08 200m, 12.39 110m hurdles, 42.09 400m or 1:58:55 marathon. In the field events
it would be equivalent to a 6.40m pole vault, a 9.16m long jump and a 100.37m javelin throw.
It took just under 17 years to take the world record down from 9.86 to 9.72 (Bolt’s first world record set in New York last year). Taking roughly the same amount of time off the record – 9.72 to 9.58 – has taken Bolt just 15 months!
***If you enjoyed this spikesmag.com feature, why not check out our Records page? Watch every world record here***