The 100m Series is a great way to watch some of the world’s best runners in action. This year, the event is being held in London and will feature the likes of Usain Bolt, Justin Gatlin and David Oliver.
Bolt has yet to dip below 10 seconds in the 100m
The 100-metre sprint is considered a benchmark of world-class male sprinters. Usain Bolt has dominated the sport in recent years. However, his later achievements have been somewhat unremarkable.
His world record at the 2009 World Athletics Championships was 9.58 seconds. This is the seventh fastest 100-metre time in history. But there is an intriguing question: how did he get that speed?
Scientists at the University of Oslo calculated the speed of Bolt’s acceleration. They used a two-mass model to calculate the ground forces at different speeds. It allows researchers to measure accelerations from high-speed videos of races.
The two-mass model is a good fit for Bolt’s stride. He strikes the ground with more force on the right leg than the left. In the past, scientists thought an uneven stride would slow a runner down.
Bolt’s stride is unusual, but it may be beneficial. Researchers are still trying to understand how he got his speed.
A video analysis of Bolt’s stride shows that his right leg strikes the ground with more force than his left leg. As a result, the left leg remains on the ground for longer. That longer contact time creates more lift.
Bolt’s stride also appears to be an optimal one for him. Most elite sprinters have relatively even strides.
Bolt has yet to dip below 10 seconds in the 200m
The Olympic champion Usain Bolt has never run below 10 seconds in the 200m. He is also the fourth fastest man of all time to achieve the feat.
While Bolt is the world’s most famous sprinter, he is far from the only great sprinter. In fact, 124 men have broken the 10-second mark since 1968, including Maurice Greene, who won the 100m at the 2000 Olympics.
Bolt has been a force to be reckoned with in recent years, and his track and field exploits are the sport’s closest religious experience in the past three Olympics. But he has also struggled over the years. His biggest injuries were in 2014, when he missed nine weeks of training.
While Bolt is the tallest sprinter on the planet at 6 foot 5 inches, he is not a speed freak. As a result, he averages the second-fastest time out of the blocks in qualifying races. However, he tends to slow down in the final.
Although he is not the fastest in the field, Bolt’s stride is much longer than most of his competitors. That is due in part to his size, but he has also developed an incredibly fast reaction time. A faster stride can make it possible for him to gain ground with each step.
Bolt has yet to dip below 10 seconds in the 400m
It’s easy to spot Usain Bolt on the track. A 6-foot-5 giant with legs like cannonball running backs, he’s one of the most famous sprinters of all time. He holds the world’s 100 and 200m records and has won every single gold medal at the World Championships.
In 2008, Bolt ran 9.69 seconds in the Olympic 100m final. That was a record that hadn’t been broken since 1992. Then, at the 2009 World Championships, he lowered that mark by nearly seven seconds.
Then, at the 2012 Olympics in London, he ran a world-record 9.63 seconds. He won the gold in the 200m and the 4x100m. This was his third consecutive Olympic 100m and 200m gold medals.
Despite his success at the Olympics, it has been widely reported that Usain Bolt hasn’t yet broken the 10-second barrier in the 400m. Traditionally, a sprinter must finish the 100m in under 10 seconds to be considered a world-class sprinter.
Although the 10-second barrier has been a psychological hurdle, a number of runners have beaten it. Currently, there are eight runners who have run the 100m in under nine seconds. Previously, only two men had gone under ten, including Carl Lewis. But with the increase in runners who have gone over ten, the importance of that barrier has diminished.
