The 19.5 straight track 200m time of Tommie Smith

[KevinR]

Clearly a very quick trip from Los Angeles to Kingston. 😂😂

Well, if he traveled there on the straight, rather than a curve.................

[Davidokun]

Do you remember what time your stopwatch showed? Since Johnson´s 100m split was around 10.12-10.14 it should have been around 9.9 handtimed right?

I didn't remember the time, but found it in my archives. Unfortunately, it doesn't answer your second question, because when I looked at our notes, I remembered that the splits were clocked at 90 meters, not 100. I used the set of white lines directly in front of our seats, which marked the start of the third exchange zone for the 4×100 relay. Furthermore, I only timed the last three rounds. Nevertheless, the following information may still be of interest.

Quarterfinals

Heat	Athlete	Nation	90	200	Place
1	Frank Fredericks	Namibia	10.2 (10.19)	20.38	1
2	Michael Johnson	USA	10.2 (10.18)	20.37	1
3	Steve Brimacombe	Australia	10.5 (10.41)	20.53	3
4	Michael Marsh	USA	10.3 (10.21)	20.39	1
5	Ato Boldon	Trinidad and Tobago	10.1 (10.10)	20.25	1

.
Semifinals

Unfortunately, our notes do not identify the athlete associated with each of these splits.

Heat	90	Winner	200
1	10.1 (10.08)	Johnson	20.27
2	10.1 (10.04)	Fredericks	19.98

.
Final

Even with corrected vision, I couldn't separate the law firm of Johnson, Fredericks, and Boldon at 90 meters, but timed them in 9.7 (9.67). For what it's worth, my hand-time of Johnson at the finish was 19.4 (19.36).

[beebee]

Same modern training, equipment, diet, etc...Smith = Bolt.