Gatlin breaks 100m World Record

TheMightyTen · 12 May 2006 at 21:46

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/athletics/4760201.stm

He's clocked 9.76. I'm chuffed for him, he's been threatening to do this for some time, head and shoulders the best sprinter for many years, and a nice bloke as well.

Will be interesting to see Powell front up to him at Gateshead in June.

TheMightyTen · 13 May 2006 at 10:47

Big Chris said:
Just out of interest, how do they time sprinters to a 1000th of a second? It's been years since I watched any athletics, I assume they have an automatic starting gun/sound/thing linked with a timer?

The trigger action of the gun activates the timing camera, all times are actually measured as the frames in a camera shot rather than from a physical clock. Thats how you can have two sprinters being given the same time but one being declared the winner because the disctreteness of the timing frame can only be called accurate to x.xx. They are experimenting around the world with greater degrees of accuarcy at the moment.

TheMightyTen · 13 May 2006 at 16:07

dannyjo22 said:
Does anyone actually believe they do this unaided? I'm sorry but I don't for one minute.

It's becoming very, very hard for the top 'Big name' athletes to cheat now as they are tested more than other athletes. Most drug cheating seems to go on in the fringe performers.

Gatlin has been very open since his postive when he was junior (subsequently found to be false, he had been on a drug since early childhood for the treatment of attention deficit disorder). He's very much seen as a role model in the states and does a lot of anti-dug work.

TheMightyTen · 13 May 2006 at 16:11

dannyjo22 said:
I just think they have better drugs and ways of getting around the tests.

Drug tests now analyse the chemical/nutritional constituents of the blood/urine and compare that to a database of previous tests, this enables isolation of 'undetecatble' drugs. It's not perfect yet but it is starting to get amazing results.

TheMightyTen · 13 May 2006 at 16:17

The_One said:
Are athletes training any harder then athletes did 5 - 10 years ago or even more?

NO

so how are times getting lower??

Answer

Drugs

Except that our knowlegde of how the body works and recovers has come on leaps and bounds in 5-10 years. Athletes train far more efficiently, they eat more efficiently, they do it all exactly when the body needs it to happen. The net result is a gradual improvement in what elite competitors can achieve.

I'm not saying all competition is drug free.

There is also the problem of when does a nutritional supplement become a drug and vice versa. Things are better than they were though.

TheMightyTen · 13 May 2006 at 19:01

duc999 said:
Tell that to Ben Johnson

Interestingly when Johnson came back from his ban he did manage to clock a 9.99 at a Canadian meet that was also an Olympic trial, obviously he couldn't go because a ban is lifetime from the Olympics (Can't even buy tickets :eek:

)

Although in general he did average 10.3 post his ban

TheMightyTen · 13 May 2006 at 20:11

We'll not see another Michael Johnson again in our lifetimes, he was a genetic freak. One of the finest competitors of track & field ever. I was lucky enough to watch him on a few occasions and got to meet him at a dinner once as well. Because there was no one who could touch him he only ever had himself continously drive forwards, a supurb example of self determmination.

TheMightyTen · 14 May 2006 at 13:36

dannyjo22 said:
But wasn't carl lewis too and didnt he test positive IIRC.

You are correct.
Gatlin however is not a trumpet blowing idiot like Lewis, his approach is more involved in educating young athletes about drugs and their pitfalls rather than pointing fingers a telling everyone how much more whiter than white he is.