It’s been 13 years since Usain Bolt set the boys’s 100m and 200m world data on the 2009 World Athletics Championships in Berlin, Germany.
Since then, the instances of 9.58 and 19.19 seconds have been out of attain of each sprinter who has tried to get near them, with the nice Jamaican happening to achieve legendary standing throughout the sport of athletics.
Nevertheless, with final 12 months’s World Athletics Championships seeing USA sweeps in each of the dash distances, the American crew are in scorching type and hankering for the type of instances that might see them problem and maybe even surpass the dash world data which have stood for properly over a decade.
Not like within the time of Bolt who flourished over 100m and 200m, the US dash crew has extra specialists of their ranks, with the likes of Fred Kerley and Trayvon Bromell making the 100m distance their very own, and Noah Lyles, Erriyon Knighton and Michael Norman excelling over the half-lap race.
However simply how shut are these fast Individuals to the instances of Bolt? And which ones has the best probability of breaking his world data? Discover out the whole lot you should know under.
The race for the 100m world document: How do right now’s US sprinters stack up in opposition to Usain Bolt?
Whereas Bolt occupies the highest three locations on the record of fastest-ever 100m instances, three present American sprinters sit joint fifteenth on the record with instances of 9.76 seconds – Fred Kerley, Trayvon Bromell and Christian Coleman.
With a number of marks within the high 15 set by the identical athletes, these three Individuals are the joint-sixth quickest males to have ever raced the blue ribband dash occasion.
Bolt has set thrice beneath 9.70 seconds, with 9.58, 9.63 and 9.69. The one different males to have dipped throughout the road in sub-9.70 are Tyson Homosexual of the USA and Yohan Blake of Jamaica in 2009 and 2012, respectively.
The quickest instances of Kerley, Coleman and Bromell are all on par with Bolt’s fifth-fastest mark within the occasion, leaving them 0.18 seconds away from the world document.
Nevertheless, whereas it could seem to be there’s a mountain to climb for any of them to achieve 9.58, it’s the type of Kerley that’s most spectacular a 12 months out from the Olympic Video games Paris 2024.
Each one of many reigning world champion’s high 10 instances have been set since 2021 – the 12 months by which he switched from the 400m to the shorter sprinting distances.
Three of his instances would even have made it into Bolt’s high 10, in comparison with two of his teammate Bromell’s.
Kerley can also be bullish about his possibilities of breaking the world document, telling The Unbiased: “It’s very lifelike. All the things is lifelike; Bolt, Wayde [Van Niekerk], and the entire American greats. They put the bar up there for us to do it.”
Compared to Kerley, Bromell has been within the sport for for much longer, but his races are solely getting quicker.
Whereas he set his fifth-fastest time again in 2015, his high 4 instances have all been since 2021.
Whether or not both of those two can shut on Bolt stays to be seen. However one factor’s for certain, the US 100m crew is near as sturdy as ever.
The principle American challengers for Usain Bolt’s 200m world document
If the boys’s 100m panorama is dominated by Crew USA, the present crop of 200m runners are about as thrilling because it will get.
Simply final 12 months, 25-year-old Noah Lyles set the fourth-fastest time in historical past, with the brand new American document of 19.31 simply 0.12 seconds off Bolt’s quickest time of 19.19.
With the Jamaican occupying two of the highest 4 spots on the all-time record, this mark additionally makes Lyles the third-fastest 200m runner ever.
The fifth-fastest 200m runner in historical past (with the Tenth-fastest time) is none aside from Erriyon Knighton, who at 19 years outdated remains to be racing within the junior classes.
Whereas the 19.49 Knighton ran in early 2022 has not but been ratified, he has already damaged the under-18 and under-20 world data within the 200m, each of which belonged to Usain Bolt.
Lyles has eight instances that might have made it into Bolt’s high 10, with seven of these set in since 2021.
Added to this, each Lyles and Knighton have now medalled on the world stage, with two World Championship golds for the previous (Doha 2019, Oregon 2022) and one bronze for his younger rival (Oregon 2022).
Lyles even expressed his disappointment at not breaking Bolt’s quickest 200m time eventually 12 months’s World Championships last, saying: “I used to be working to interrupt the world document, so if something you may say I used to be just a little disenchanted,” whereas Knighton advised Olympics.com confidently that he believes “sub-19” is in his future.
Nevertheless, there may be one other gifted athlete who might additionally enter the dialog, although he’s higher recognized proper now as a 400m specialist: Michael Norman.
At 25 years outdated, Norman is similar age as Lyles, and his document throughout the dash distances is spectacular.
Considered one of solely three males to have posted a sub 10-second 100m, sub 20-second 200m and sub 44-second 400m, Norman has a PB of 19.70 over the half-lap distance.
Ought to he, like Kerley earlier than him, resolve to pay attention absolutely on the shorter sprints, the reigning 400m world champion has the velocity to problem the most effective on the earth right now.