Asafa Powell or Bob Hayes - World’s Fastest 100 meters?
October 10, 2008 by Jimson Lee
POP QUIZ: Who has the World Record for the 4×100m fastest 100 meter relay split ?
This is not an official event, as timing consistency varies, but we all love stats, right?
Ever since I started watching the Olympics in 1972, historians always referred to “Bullet” Bob Hayes 8.5 second 4×100 meter anchor relay leg at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. If you convert that split to a FAT, that translates to 8.74 seconds.
Of course, Bob Hayes won the open 100 meter earlier, and his come from behind victory in the 4×100m relay made him the fastest man alive under any conditions. Ask anyone who witnessed that relay leg.
Jocelyn Delecour, France’s anchor leg runner, famously said to Paul Drayton before the relay final, “You can’t win, all you have is Bob Hayes”.
Afterwards, Drayton replied, “All you need is Bob Hayes”.
So Who is the Fastest?
In the 4×100 meter relay at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, Carl Lewis anchored the relay in a World Record of 37.40 seconds, which was recently beaten by Jamaica’s 37.10 at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Carl ran an “officially recorded” split of 8.85 seconds for the anchor leg.
Still not faster than Bob Hayes.
At the 2007 World Championships in Osaka, Asafa Powell recorded a 8.84 anchor split.
Still not faster than Bob Hayes.
Finally, at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Asafa Powell’s split time was recorded at 8.70 seconds by the USTAF High Performance Registered Split Analysis team.
So that gives Asafa the WR for the “fastest 100m split”. I’m sure he prefers the Gold medal instead.
One day, we will see Usain Bolt anchor the relay, and with his 200m speed endurance, don’t be surprised if he splits 8.60 seconds! If you look at his 10 meter splits, ignore the first 10 meters, and add 0.84 seconds to his last 10 meter segment, he can clearly go under 8.60 running 100 meters “on the fly”.
Or faster.
Tagged:
100 meters, 4x100, Asafa Powell, Olympics, relay, speed, speed endurance, Usain Bolt
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I doubt that I could drive my car as fast as he can run!
GIVE ME A SUMMARY OF WHY YOU DO OR DON’T THINK ASAFA POWEL IS FASTER THAN USAIN BOLT
@Tamara - see:
http://speedendurance.com/2008/08/22/usain-bolt-100m-10-meter-splits-and-speed-endurance/