Fastest 100 meters ever

Michael Johnson's Atlanta Olympics 19.32WR had 100m splits, I recall, of 10.12 and 9.2.

Isn't it reasonable to say that Johnson's 10.12 around a turn might be the fastest 100m ever run?

The proof would be the average differential in the 200/220 PRs of great furlong runners who recorded times both on the straightaway and on the curve . . . sprinters from Jesse Owens to Bobby Morrow to Tommie Smith. My guess is that the average differential in their straight vs. curve PRs is 0.4 seconds.

If so, Johnson's 10.12 is the equal of a 9.72.

[tafnut]

Re: Fastest 100 meters ever

to split hairs:
1. it is obviously not the FASTEST because 9.78 is faster than 10.12. And 9.69 is the fastest ever anyway. (wa - alt Thompson 96)
2. You are assuming MJ is as inefficient a curve runner as the others. He certainly was a much better curve runner.

Re: Fastest 100 meters ever

MJ split 8.9 in the 3rd 100 of a 400 one time. Can't remember if it was a relay leg or an individual race. The writeup was in a T&FN a couple years back.

[tafnut]

Re: Fastest 100 meters ever

but that was a running start. The fastest there is probably Bob Hayes' 8.6

[Per Andersen]

Re: Fastest 100 meters ever

The splits for the top 3 in Atlanta in the 200 were: 10.12-9.20
10.14-9.54
10.18-9.62
Carl's split in L.A. in '84 was 10.23.
Using Karlgaard's logic Fredericks, Boldon + Carl all ran their fastest ever 100 out of the blocks in a 200m race. How likely is that? Let's get real. No matter how fantastic that 19.32 is Johnson was a 10.1 sprinter out of the blocks in the 100. If he could run in the 9.7s or 9.8s he would surely have tried it during his long career. I would rank him behind Tommie Smith and McKenley in the 100 the only other 2 with similar talent. I cant't remember what Henry Carr did in the 100.

Re: Fastest 100 meters ever

Pete --

You actualy make my point. MJ's first 100 meters in Atlanta was FASTER than some sub 9.9 runners.

MJ ran an out-of-the-blocks 10.12 around a curve at near sea level. That's astonishing. "Tafnut" says, well, MJ was more efficient than most around the curve. I won't argue with that.

But let's quantify what efficient means.

History says the great furlong runners like Owens, Morrow and Smith ran about 0.4 seconds slower around the curve. If MJ was more efficient, let's assume his penalty was 0.3 seconds.

That means MJ ran the equivalent of a straight 9.82 in his first 100 meters in Atlanta. Not the fastest of all-time, but up there.

He was a career 10.1 runner you say? Well, how many times did he actually run the 100m during his peak years? With a multi-million dollar income, why would he risk it?

MJ's 19.32 (at low altitude) is the best men's record, IMHO. It will last 20 years.

Re: Fastest 100 meters ever

Per! (Not Pete!) Sorry, too early in the AM.

Re: Fastest 100 meters ever

In The Guinness Book of Track & Field Facts & Feats, Peter Matthews said that 200m times around a curve are generally 0.3 to 0.4 seconds slower than straightaway times. Empirical evidence using world lists from the 20s and 30s bears it out. Any physicists out there care to do the calculations for energy requirements?

Don't forget, we never got splits for Tommy Smith's 19.5 for 220y on a straightaway. I don't know what kind of surface it was on; taking different running surfaces into account, today's top sprinters may not be much faster than Hayes and Smith.

[magpie]

Re: Fastest 100 meters ever

>He was a career 10.1 runner you say?
>Well, how many times did he actually run the 100m
>during his peak years?

10.09 @ '94 nattys in knoxville.

[tafnut]

Re: Fastest 100 meters ever

I'm thinking .2 efficient as in I doubt that's worth better than a 9.92, but that is also amazing when you think he's only halfway thru the race. The 9.20 second half is amazing because the big guys only run .84 - .84 as the fastest 10 meters in the really fast 100's so he was holding speed pretty darn well.

[gh]

Re: Fastest 100 meters ever

Rich K wrote:

<MJ ran an out-of-the-blocks 10.12
around a curve at near sea level. >

Actually, Atlanta is not near sea level; 991ft (302m) up actually. You have to add at least a few 100ths to his time for that aid compared to actual sea-level.

As an aside, note that before Coors Field came along at ultra-altitude to throw baseball numbers out of whack, recall that the old Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium was known as "The Launching Pad" because of the number of homers hit there. Guess why that happened.

gh

ps--maybe some native Atlantan can confirm a story I heard at the Olympics: the altitude of Atlanta is such that despite there being about 111 different streets in Atlanta with the word "peach" in them no peach trees grow within many miles of the city. True?

Re: Fastest 100 meters ever

Two reasons-

1. altitude

2. the Braves pitching was consistently some of the worst in baseball for the first 20+ years the stadium existed.

Re: Fastest 100 meters ever

yeah, but Hank Aaron wasn't hitting off the Braves' pitchers!

Re: Fastest 100 meters ever

Yeah, but the launching pad boosted old Henry's totals. He was slowing down until he got new life down there.

This is b.s. comparing MJ to the best 100 meter men. C'mon. You're comparing apples and oranges, to use a worn out analogy.

[X King]

Re: Fastest 100 meters ever

I do take Split Times of Track and Field races from my Video-Tape Analysis and when I looked very closely at the tape(after many attempts,with 10.12s and 10.13s),I found Michael Johnson at the 100m mark in 10.14s. So his corrected 100m Splits were 10.14s/9.18s. And according to JRM's calculations a 10.12s curve is worth 9.94s for a 'normal' 100m runner. So MJ's 10.14s which I found is worth around 9.96s. And he didn't train for the 100m. So if he trained for it, he would of run around 9.76s-9.80s. But's that just my opinion. And who said that MJ ran an 8.9s Split for the 3rd 100m of a 400m race??? That's absolutely obscene the Fastest ever 3rd 100m of a Men's 400m race taken by Sientific or Video-Tape Analysis research is 10.10s by Alberto Juantereno(CUB) in 1976. The Fastest 100m section of 400m race was made by Jerome Young(USA)9.86s 100m-200m in the 1996 USA Olympic Trials.
I'll have to check my corrected (and combined figures from other research) 10m Splits of Michael Johnson's 200m World Record in Atlanta OG in '96 to find his Fastest 100m Split.