It is been 13 years because Usain Bolt set the men’s 100m and 200m planet records at the 2009 Globe Athletics Championships in Berlin, Germany.
Considering that then, the occasions of 9.58 and 19.19 seconds have been out of attain of each and every sprinter who has attempted to get close to them, with the wonderful Jamaican going on to attain mythical status inside the sport of athletics.
Even so, with final year’s Globe Athletics Championships seeing USA sweeps in each of the sprint distances, the American group are in hot kind and hankering for the sort of occasions that would see them challenge and probably even surpass the sprint planet records that have stood for properly more than a decade.
As opposed to in the time of Bolt who flourished more than 100m and 200m, the US sprint group has far more specialists in their ranks, with the likes of Fred Kerley and Trayvon Bromell creating the 100m distance their personal, and Noah Lyles, Erriyon Knighton and Michael Norman excelling more than the half-lap race.
But just how close are these speedy Americans to the occasions of Bolt? And which of them has the greatest possibility of breaking his planet records? Discover out anything you require to know beneath.
The race for the 100m planet record: How do today’s US sprinters stack up against Usain Bolt?
Whilst Bolt occupies the prime 3 locations on the list of quickest-ever 100m occasions, 3 existing American sprinters sit joint 15th on the list with occasions of 9.76 seconds – Fred Kerley, Trayvon Bromell and Christian Coleman.
With numerous marks in the prime 15 set by the very same athletes, these 3 Americans are the joint-sixth quickest guys to have ever raced the blue ribband sprint occasion.
Bolt has set 3 occasions below 9.70 seconds, with 9.58, 9.63 and 9.69. The only other guys to have dipped across the line in sub-9.70 are Tyson Gay of the USA and Yohan Blake of Jamaica in 2009 and 2012, respectively.
The quickest occasions of Kerley, Coleman and Bromell are all on par with Bolt’s fifth-quickest mark in the occasion, leaving them .18 seconds away from the planet record.
Even so, though it may perhaps look like there’s a mountain to climb for any of them to attain 9.58, it is the kind of Kerley that is most impressive a year out from the Olympic Games Paris 2024.
Just about every one particular of the reigning planet champion’s prime ten occasions have been set because 2021 – the year in which he switched from the 400m to the shorter sprinting distances.
3 of his occasions would also have created it into Bolt’s prime ten, compared to two of his teammate Bromell’s.
Kerley is also bullish about his probabilities of breaking the planet record, telling The Independent: “It’s extremely realistic. Every little thing is realistic Bolt, Wayde [Van Niekerk], and all of the American greats. They place the bar up there for us to do it.”
In comparison to Kerley, Bromell has been in the game for a lot longer, however his races are only receiving more rapidly.
Whilst he set his fifth-quickest time back in 2015, his prime 4 occasions have all been because 2021.
Whether or not either of these two can close on Bolt remains to be noticed. But one particular thing’s for confident, the US 100m group is close to as powerful as ever.
The principal American challengers for Usain Bolt’s 200m planet record
If the men’s 100m landscape is dominated by Group USA, the existing crop of 200m runners are about as fascinating as it gets.
Just final year, 25-year-old Noah Lyles set the fourth-quickest time in history, with the new American record of 19.31 just .12 seconds off Bolt’s quickest time of 19.19.
With the Jamaican occupying two of the prime 4 spots on the all-time list, this mark also tends to make Lyles the third-quickest 200m runner ever.
The fifth-quickest 200m runner in history (with the 10th-quickest time) is none other than Erriyon Knighton, who at 19 years old is nonetheless racing in the junior categories.
Whilst the 19.49 Knighton ran in early 2022 has not however been ratified, he has currently broken the below-18 and below-20 planet records in the 200m, each of which belonged to Usain Bolt.
Lyles has eight occasions that would have created it into Bolt’s prime ten, with seven of these set in because 2021.
Added to this, each Lyles and Knighton have now medalled on the planet stage, with two Globe Championship golds for the former (Doha 2019, Oregon 2022) and one particular bronze for his young rival (Oregon 2022).
Lyles even expressed his disappointment at not breaking Bolt’s quickest 200m time at final year’s Globe Championships final, saying: “I was operating to break the planet record, so if something you could say I was a small disappointed,” though Knighton told Olympics.com confidently that he believes “sub-19” is in his future.
Even so, there is a different talented athlete who could also enter the conversation, even even though he is far better recognized ideal now as a 400m specialist: Michael Norman.
At 25 years old, Norman is the very same age as Lyles, and his record across the sprint distances is impressive.
A single of only 3 guys to have posted a sub ten-second 100m, sub 20-second 200m and sub 44-second 400m, Norman has a PB of 19.70 more than the half-lap distance.
Must he, like Kerley prior to him, determine to concentrate completely on the shorter sprints, the reigning 400m planet champion has the speed to challenge the greatest in the planet currently.