Bolt redefining sprinting in rush to greatness

Bolt breaks 100m world record in 9.58 seconds

Usain Bolt has accomplished in just over a year what it took mankind to do in 30.

Ever since Bolt broke the 100 metre world record for the third time since May 2008, pundits have been running out of superlatives to describe the lanky sprinter from Sherwood Content in Trelawny.

Jim Hines was the first man to dip below 10 seconds for the 100 metre sprint in 1968.
Since that time the record has been lowered gradually by Carl Lewis, Leroy Burrell,
Donovan Bailey, Maurice Greene and Asafa Powell, who lowered the world record from 9.79 to 9.74 seconds. When Powell last set the world record in Rieti, Italy, man had only managed to lower the 100-metres world record a paltry 0.21 seconds.

Than came along Usain Bolt who announced his arrival last year May when an astounding 9.76 seconds, a mere .02 seconds off Powell’s world record. On May 30, 2008, at the Reebok Grand Prix in New York, Bolt began his assault on the 100 metre record that would redefine the way we think about the short sprint. On that rainy night, Bolt clocked 9.72 seconds. Then in August that year in Beijing, Bolt shaved a further .03 seconds off the record he now owned taking it down to 9.69 seconds.

On August 16, one year to the day that he became the first man to legally record a time under 9.70 seconds, chopped a massive .11 seconds off the world mark to 9.58 seconds in a fantastic display of sprinting in the Berlin Olympic stadium.

So, it took man 40 years to lower the world record from 9.95 to 9.74. In just over 15 months Bolt has lopped a massive 0.16 seconds, a truly special accomplishment.

No big surprise though since Bolt seems to churn out special accomplishments on a daily basis. Bolt’s last four races at major championships have all ended with world record performances running faster and faster on each occasion.