Friday, August 27, 2010

100 metres on track & field event...

Sprinters typically reach top speed after somewhere between 50–60 m. Their speed then slows progressively towards the finish line. Maintaining that top speed for as long as possible is a primary focus of training for the 100 m.100 m (one hundred metres) is the shortest outdoor sprint race distance in the sport of athletics. The reigning 100 m Olympic champion is often named "the fastest man/woman in the world". The 200 m record has often been at a faster average speed than the 100 m record.

In the past, athletes in Anglophone countries often competed over 100 yards (91.4 m) instead of 100 m, especially in the United States. This shorter distance is now obsolete. Indoor sprints are often run over 60 m (sometimes 50 m or 55 m) as few facilities have a 100 m indoor straight.

On an outdoor 400 metres running track, the 100 m is run on the home straight, the start being set on an extension to make it a straight-line race.


RECORD PERFORMANCE

Major 100 m races, such as at the Olympic Games, attract much attention, particularly when the world record is thought to be within reach.

Usain Bolt breaking the world and Olympic records at the2008 Beijing Olympics

The men's world record has been improved upon twelve times since the introduction of electronic timing in 1968. The current men's world record of 9.58 s is held by Usain Bolt of Jamaica, set at the 2009 World Athletics Championships final on 16 August 2009, breaking his own previous world record by 0.11 s. The current women's world record of 10.49 s was set byFlorence Griffith-Joyner of the USA, in Indianapolis, Indiana, on 16 July 1988.

Illegal drug use has been seen by some people as a means to gain a competitive edge; in particular, the scandal at the 1988 Summer Olympics when the winner Ben Johnson was stripped of his medal. In 2003, revelations of failed drug tests by sprinting legend Carl Lewis before the 1988 Seoul Olympics also put the validity of his achievements into question.

Jim Hines was the first man to break the 10-second barrier in the 100 m, recording the first sub-10 second, electronically timed run to win the 100 metres at the 1968 Olympics.


STARTING

At the start, some athletes play psychological games such as trying to be last to the starting blocks, although direct intimidation would be considered unsportsmanlike. The starter will keep the sprinters in the set position for an unpredictable time of around two seconds and then fire the starting gun.

The time between the gun and first kick against the starting block is measured electronically, via sensors built in the gun and the blocks. A reaction time less than 0.1 s is considered a false start. The 0.1-second interval accounts for the sum of the time it takes for the sound of the starter's pistol to reach the runners' ears, and the time it takes to react to it.

Runners lining up to start the race in Osaka

For many years a sprinter was disqualified if responsible for two false starts individually. However, this rule allowed some major races to be restarted so many times that the sprinters started to lose focus. The current rule, introduced in February 2003, is that, after one false start, anyone responsible for a subsequent false start is disqualified immediately. This rule has led to some sprinters deliberately false-starting to gain a psychological advantage: an individual with a slower reaction time might false-start, forcing the faster starters to wait and be sure of hearing the gun for the subsequent start, thereby losing some of their advantage. In order to avoid such abuse, the IAAF will implement a change to the rule from the 2010 season, so that the first false starting athlete is immediately disqualified.This proposal was met with objections when first raised in 2005, on the grounds that it would not leave any room for innocent mistakes. Justin Gatlin commented, "Just a flinch or a leg cramp could cost you a year's worth of work.


FINISH

The winner is determined by the first athlete with his or her torso (not including limbs, head, or neck) over the nearer edge of the finish line.


CLIMATIC CONDITIONS

Climatic conditions are a crucial factor for good performances in the 100 m. Air resistance is the primary climatic factor in sprint performances. A strong head wind is very detrimental to performance, while a tail wind can improve performances significantly. For this reason, a maximum tail wind of 2.0 m/s is allowed for a 100 m performance to be considered eligible for records, or "wind legal".

Furthermore, sprint athletes perform better at high altitudes because of the thinner air, which provides less air resistance. In theory, the thinner air would also make breathing slightly more difficult (due to the partial pressure of oxygen being lower), but this difference is negligible for sprint distances where all the oxygen needed for the short dash is already in the muscles and bloodstream when the race starts. While there are no limitations on altitude, performances made at altitudes greater than 1000 m above sea level are marked with an "A".


FASTEST 100 METRES RUNNER

Top fourteen all-time athletes—men

(Updated 08 August 2010)

RankFastest timeWind (m/s)AthleteCountryDateLocation
19.58+0.9Usain Bolt Jamaica16 August 2009Berlin
29.69+2.0Tyson Gay United States20 September 2009Shanghai
39.72+0.2Asafa Powell Jamaica2 September 2008Lausanne
49.79+0.1Maurice Greene United States16 June 1999Athens
59.84+0.7Donovan Bailey Canada27 July 1996Atlanta
+0.2Bruny Surin Canada22 August 1999Seville
79.85+1.2Leroy Burrell United States6 July 1994Lausanne
+0.6Justin Gatlin United States22 August 2004Athens
+1.7Olusoji Fasuba Nigeria12 May 2006Doha
109.86+1.2Carl Lewis United States25 August 1991Tokyo
−0.4Frankie Fredericks Namibia3 July 1996Lausanne
+1.8Ato Boldon Trinidad and Tobago19 April 1998Walnut
+0.6Francis Obikwelu Portugal22 August 2004Athens
+1.0Nesta Carter Jamaica08 August 2010Lucerne

Notes

  • Tyson Gay also has a time of 9.68 s set on 29 June 2008 during the 2008 U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon; the tail wind speed was 4.1 m/s, more than double the IAAF legal limit.[9]
  • Obadele Thompson ran a wind-aided 9.69 in El Paso, Texas in April 1996 which stood as the fastest ever 100m time for 12 years until Tyson Gay's June 2008 performance
  • Justin Gatlin ran 9.77 in Doha on 12 May 2006, which was at the time ratified as a world record. However, the performance was annulled in 2007 after he failed a doping test in April 2006.
  • Carl Lewis ran a time of 9.78 seconds at the 1988 US olympic trials in Indianapolis but it was wind aided.
  • Tim Montgomery's time (9.78 at Paris on 14 September 2002) was invalidated following his indictment in the BALCO scandal on drug use and drug trafficking charges. The time had stood as the world record until Asafa Powell first ran 9.77.
  • Ben Johnson ran 9.79 at Seoul on 24 September 1988, but he was disqualified after he tested positive for stanozolol after the race. He subsequently admitted to drug use between 1981 and 1988, and his time of 9.83 at Rome on 30 August 1987 was invalidated. Carl Lewis's 9.92 in the Seoul race was therefore recognized as the world record, and his two prior runs of 9.93 were seen as having equalled the previous world record.
  • Ato Boldon has recorded 9.86 seconds on four occasions: the one detailed here is the first.

Top ten all-time athletes—women

(Updated 20 September 2009)
RankFastest timeWind (m/s)AthleteNationDateLocation
110.490.0Florence Griffith-Joyner United States16 July 1988Indianapolis
210.64+1.2Carmelita Jeter United States20 September 2009Shanghai
310.65 [A]+1.1Marion Jones United States12 September 1998Johannesburg
410.73+0.1Shelly-Ann Fraser Jamaica17 August 2009Berlin
+2.0Christine Arron France19 August 1998Budapest
610.74+1.3Merlene Ottey Jamaica7 September 1996Milan
710.75+0.4Kerron Stewart Jamaica10 July 2009Rome
810.76+1.7Evelyn Ashford United States22 August 1984Zürich
910.77+0.9Irina Privalova Russia6 July 1994Lausanne
+0.7Ivet Lalova Bulgaria19 June 2004Plovdiv

Note

  • Florence Griffith-Joyner's World Record has been the subject of a controversy due to strong suspicion of a defective anemometer measuring a tailwind lower than actually present; since 1997 the International Athletics Annual of the Association of Track and Field Statisticians has listed this performance as "probably strongly wind assisted, but recognised as a world record".
  • Marion Jones later confessed to using performance enhancing drugs in setting her 100m time.


Area records

(Updated 21 September 2009)

AreaMen'sWomen's
TimeAthleteNationTimeAthleteNation
Africa (records)9.85Olusoji Fasuba Nigeria10.90Glory Alozie Nigeria
Asia (records)9.99Samuel Francis Qatar10.79Li Xuemei China
Europe (records)9.86Francis Obikwelu Portugal10.73Christine Arron France
North, Central America
and Caribbean
(records)
9.58 WRUsain Bolt Jamaica10.49 WRFlorence Griffith-Joyner United States
Oceania (records)9.93Patrick Johnson Australia11.12[A]Melinda Gainsford-Taylor Australia
South America (records)10.00[A]Robson da Silva Brazil11.17[A]Lucimar Aparecida de Moura Brazil

Notes




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