Despite joining the SEA Games for the first time in Hanoi in May, he won three golds. Puripol also set a national record of 20.19 seconds in the 200-metre sprint in Kazakhstan on June 27 th. The previous record of 10.15 seconds was held by American sprinter Anthony Schwartz since 2017. So despite Gatlin’s “record”, the official “fastest man on Earth” title still rests with Bolt – at least for now.Thailand’s sprint sensation, 16-year-old Puripol Boonson, has been named by the World Athletics as the Number One 100-metre sprinter in the Under-18 age group, with a record of 10.09 seconds, set at the 2022 World Athletics U20 Championships held in Colombia last Tuesday (August 2 nd), according to the World Athletics website. Several sub-nine second times have been recorded in this leg of the race including Bolt’s electronically-timed 8.65 seconds in 2014.ĭespite this, the fastest human footspeed was recorded between 60 and 80 metres in Bolt’s world record 9.58-second 100 metres in Berlin. In the last leg, the “anchor” doesn’t even have to worry about passing on the baton at the other end so can achieve some incredibly quick times. This effect is even more exaggerated in the 4x100 metre relay in which all but one of the runners begins their 100-metre stretch from a running start. Based on average speed over the whole race, the title of “fastest person on earth” has switched back and forth between 100 and 200 metre runners since the records began. Part of this increase, however, is due to not having to react and accelerate up to speed in the second 100 metres of the 200 metre race. This means that on average, he was running faster in the longer event. When Bolt set two new world records for the 100 metres and 200 metres at the 2008 Bejing Olympics in the bird’s nest stadium, his 200 metres took him 19.30 seconds, less than twice the time of his 9.69 second 100 metres. In fact, although billed as the race for the fastest person on Earth, it’s questionable whether the 100 metres always produces the fastest performance. Critics also cite fundamental difference in men’s and women’s physiology, including oxygen carrying capacity and body fat levels, which suggest that the “fastest person on earth” will never be a woman. They argue that now men and women are on a roughly level playing field the decrease in women’s 100 metre times will begin to slow to a rate comparable with that of the men. However, sports scientists have been critical of the findings and have suggested that increased participation and training opportunities for women over the same time period have led to the artificially rapid reduction in their 100 metre times in comparison to the men’s. The team concluded that, if trends continue as they have over the last 90 years, women could be dominating the 100 metres by 2156. Researchers from the University of Oxford found that, although 100 metres’ times for both men and women have been decreasing linearly over the years, the women’s time was decreasing at a much faster rate than than the men’s. Surely, though, whatever the weather, one thing we can be confident about is that the world’s fastest sprinter will always be a man? Well, perhaps not. So wind and other adverse weather conditions can act as a leveller, adding to the uncertainty about the results of individual races. On the back straight, however, it would reduce your speed to zero meaning that you’d never finish the race. Imagine the extreme example of a wind so strong that it doubles your speed down the home straight. The difference in the time you spend being assisted by the wind versus the time you spend battling it ensures your lap time always slows. When you run down the back straight, however, you spend longer going slower, fighting against the wind. The reason, in essence, is that because you run faster down the home straight, you derive the benefit of being pushed by the wind for only a short time. Strangely, however, it doesn’t work out that way. It seems reasonable that these two effects might balance each other out giving Farah the same lap time as if there were no wind at all. When Mo Farah runs with the wind, his speed is increased by a set amount, but when he runs against it on the back straight the wind decreases his speed by the same amount. Consider a wind blowing up the home straight of a standard 400 metre athletics track.
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