Usain Bolt vs Wayde Van Neikerk at 300m – Who wins?

Interesting BBC Radio program on the Usain Bolt vs Wayde Van Neikerk possible showdown at 300m. You can listen to that program here.

Let’s look at some facts.

The Tale of the Tape

The WR for 300 meters is 30.85A by MJ set in 2000 (Yes, I would love to see this record broken!)

Usain Bolt’s 300m PB is 30.97 set in 2010, which lead to a slight Achilles strain afterwards.

In 2009, Bolt was in 19.19 200m shape, but in 2010, his SB was 19.56 set in May.

Wayde van Niekerk’s 300m PB is 31.03 set in June 2016.

Wayde’s 200m PB is 19.94 set in 2015.

Wayde split 31.0 (HT) en route to his 43.03 at the Rio Olympics.  His 43.48 300m split was “only” 31.3 (HT)

And the Winner is…

The real winner will be the fans of Track & Field.  I can assure you this will be a sold out stadium, because any time Bolt shows up, there are no empty seats!

No one really knows who will win, until they actually race.  I do constantly remind myself with a famous Tony Robbins quote: The past does not equal the future.

Bring on the race.  I’ll be watching.