Usain Bolt

[blazindw]

In less time than it took for me to say "Usain Bolt", Usain Bolt smashed his own world record in the 100m dash yesterday. He ran a 9.58, beating his own record by .11! Tyson Gay set an American record of 9.71, which was only .02 off the former world record...and he got housed.

Usain Bolt is not human...he can't be. Humans can't run that fast.

[YmoBeThere]

Housed? Or hosed? Either way, Gay had as big a lead on 3rd as Bolt had on him. Reminds of a poster I used to have with Ralph Sampson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar rebounding a ball. It said, "How does it feel to be 7'2" and be 2 inches too short?"

[blazindw]

Housed? Or hosed? Either way, Gay had as big a lead on 3rd as Bolt had on him. Reminds of a poster I used to have with Ralph Sampson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar rebounding a ball. It said, "How does it feel to be 7'2" and be 2 inches too short?"

Housed. Hawked. Ran. Yea, Gay had just as big a lead on Asafa Powell (in '96, his time would've set the world record), but to run 9.58...unbelievable. And Bolt says he wants to break 9.40. Just a year ago that seemed unfathomable. Now, he could possibly break it in the next year!

[Fish80]

Better living thru chemistry? Are there any allegations of steroid use yet? Those times suggest performance enhancers.

[roywhite]

Better living thru chemistry? Are there any allegations of steroid use yet? Those times suggest performance enhancers.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/jul/24/jamaica-sprinters-fail-drug-test

There really had not been many doping incidents involving Jamaican sprinters, but this came about in the last few months.

Don't think I've seen any allegations involving Bolt. It's a shame that the doping scandals in track and field are so widespread that every great performance is questioned.

[moonpie23]

i'll have a bottle of that bolt stuff, thank you !! :)

[weezie]

And still, Bolt looked a little slower than the others at the start of the run; he's so fast he seems to run in Six Million Dollar Man motion with the sound slowed down. He's incredible!

[SupaDave]

He's prototype. Almost a perfect runner. Long strides. Tall but comes out low. Takes his time. Head up. Shoulders straight. Powerful. Amazing...

[moonpie23]

when i watch him in slo mo, it's almost like the other guys are TOO bulked up....he is so amazing in form and function...

[BlueDevilBaby]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/jul/24/jamaica-sprinters-fail-drug-test

There really had not been many doping incidents involving Jamaican sprinters, but this came about in the last few months.

Don't think I've seen any allegations involving Bolt. It's a shame that the doping scandals in track and field are so widespread that every great performance is questioned.

Now there's a question of whether a female runner on the South African team is really female. They will run a gender test on her.

[bjornolf]

They were talking about him on the radio today, and they said that someone estimated that if he went to the NFL combine, he'd run a 3.1 second 40. Yes, you read that right, a 3.1! :eek:

[Bluedog]

They were talking about him on the radio today, and they said that someone estimated that if he went to the NFL combine, he'd run a 3.1 second 40. Yes, you read that right, a 3.1! :eek:

In pads?

[hc5duke]

They were talking about him on the radio today, and they said that someone estimated that if he went to the NFL combine, he'd run a 3.1 second 40. Yes, you read that right, a 3.1! :eek:

40 yards / (100 meters / 9.58 seconds) = 3.50 seconds according to Google. Of course, that's assuming a lot of things, like constant acceleration and no pads. IIRC they are still in accelerating state at that point, so presumably this number should be slower; e.g. wiki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/40_yard_dash) says that Justin Gatlin's 9.85s translated to "only" 4.42s, not 3.60s (using the same equation I used above). Again, assuming a lot of things...

[bjornolf]

Um, they NEVER do the forty in pads at the combine. The skill position players usually wear running shorts and sprinter's cleats.

[InSpades]

40 yards / (100 meters / 9.58 seconds) = 3.50 seconds according to Google. Of course, that's assuming a lot of things, like constant acceleration and no pads. IIRC they are still in accelerating state at that point, so presumably this number should be slower; e.g. wiki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/40_yard_dash) says that Justin Gatlin's 9.85s translated to "only" 4.42s, not 3.60s (using the same equation I used above). Again, assuming a lot of things...

Your calculation was assuming constant speed (or velocity) and not constant acceleration. Neither of which is a very good assumption regardless. Obviously if he ran a 10 meter dash he would not be able to break 1 second. It will be interesting to see what he runs in the 200m dash since generally the 200m record is less than twice the 100m record. Currently his 200m record is slightly more than twice the new 100m record. He may go on to shatter the 200m record as well (many thought Michael Johnson's 200m record would stand for a lot longer than it did).

[hc5duke]

Your calculation was assuming constant speed (or velocity) and not constant acceleration. Neither of which is a very good assumption regardless. Obviously if he ran a 10 meter dash he would not be able to break 1 second. It will be interesting to see what he runs in the 200m dash since generally the 200m record is less than twice the 100m record. Currently his 200m record is slightly more than twice the new 100m record. He may go on to shatter the 200m record as well (many thought Michael Johnson's 200m record would stand for a lot longer than it did).

argh you're right. but yeah, my point is that he would not run nearly that fast (3.5s)

[roywhite]

Your calculation was assuming constant speed (or velocity) and not constant acceleration. Neither of which is a very good assumption regardless. Obviously if he ran a 10 meter dash he would not be able to break 1 second. It will be interesting to see what he runs in the 200m dash since generally the 200m record is less than twice the 100m record. Currently his 200m record is slightly more than twice the new 100m record. He may go on to shatter the 200m record as well (many thought Michael Johnson's 200m record would stand for a lot longer than it did).

http://berlin.iaaf.org/news/kind=101/newsid=53084.html

Here's some split times and analysis on Bolt's race. He covered the first 20 meters in 2.89 secs, and the first 40 meters in 4.64 seconds. Doing some extrapolation (40 meters = approx. 43.74 yards, then subtract approx. time for the portion between 40 yds and 43.74 yards), he ran the first 40 yards in approx. 4.34 seconds.

A 4.34 forty by the world record holder on a track----that certainly casts major doubts on 99% of the times quoted for football players running a 40 yard time trial.

At any rate, the guy is extraordinary.

[SupaDave]

http://berlin.iaaf.org/news/kind=101/newsid=53084.html

Here's some split times and analysis on Bolt's race. He covered the first 20 meters in 2.89 secs, and the first 40 meters in 4.64 seconds. Doing some extrapolation (40 meters = approx. 43.74 yards, then subtract approx. time for the portion between 40 yds and 43.74 yards), he ran the first 40 yards in approx. 4.34 seconds.

A 4.34 forty by the world record holder on a track----that certainly casts major doubts on 99% of the times quoted for football players running a 40 yard time trial.

At any rate, the guy is extraordinary.

Not necessarily true - you have to remember that the 40 isn't necessarily designed to test your speed but you're acceleration. Bolt is just getting in stride at 40 yards...

[roywhite]

Not necessarily true - you have to remember that the 40 isn't necessarily designed to test your speed but you're acceleration. Bolt is just getting in stride at 40 yards...

When Bolt is in first place at 40 meters (or 40 yards) in the finals of the World Track Championships, I will assume that no football player would be even with him, or even wihin a yard of him. These are the fastest men in the world that he's outpacing, and some of them are quick starters.

If he ran a 4.34 or 4.35, I think very few football players under those conditions (automatic timing) can legitimately go under 4.50 seconds for 40 yards.

[InSpades]

Not necessarily true - you have to remember that the 40 isn't necessarily designed to test your speed but you're acceleration. Bolt is just getting in stride at 40 yards...

At 50 meters Bolt was ahead of the World Record for the 50 meter dash (a race commonly run indoors). It is very very likely that the reason you see football players running 4.3 second 40 yard dashes is because they are not being properly timed.

[bjornolf]

At 50 meters Bolt was ahead of the World Record for the 50 meter dash (a race commonly run indoors). It is very very likely that the reason you see football players running 4.3 second 40 yard dashes is because they are not being properly timed.

Which may be why they say he might run a 3.1 second 40. If it's not accurately timed, he should still come out as way faster than anybody else. ;)

[blazindw]

Also, 40 yd dashes are usually hand-timed, not electronic (not sure if it's done electronically at the combine, but I know each team hand times it anyway). The general rule in track is if your race is hand-timed, add .24 to it to get the electronic time. Thus, a lot of "4.3s" would be 4.5s electronically. The fact that Bolt ran what would calculate to be a 4.34 electronic time means that handtimed, we're looking at 4.1 for his 40.

[blazindw]

Just realized the 200m final was now. I just missed it, but the news is: Usain Bolt. 19.19 seconds. New WR (beat his old record by, you guessed it, .11)

[YourLandlord]

Just realized the 200m final was now. I just missed it, but the news is: Usain Bolt. 19.19 seconds. New WR (beat his old record by, you guessed it, .11)

BUT WHAT WAS HIS 40 TIME????????

wow: Alonso Edward of Panama was second, a distant 0.62 seconds behind Bolt.

[blazindw]

but what was his 40 time????????

Wow: Alonso edward of panama was second, a distant 0.62 seconds behind bolt.

a 3.509! Lol

[Tom B.]

wow: Alonso Edward of Panama was second, a distant 0.62 seconds behind Bolt.


To put that gap into a bit of perspective....

In terms of world record progression, the gap between Bolt and the #2 finisher is almost 30 years. That is, the last date on which the second-place finisher's time (19.81) would have been a world record was September 12, 1979, the date on which Pietro Mennea of Italy lowered the then-existing world record from 19.83 to 19.72.

[DevilAlumna]

Did anyone catch the medal ceremony for Bolt? The whole stadium sang "Happy Birthday" to him after the Jamaican National anthem was played. :D

[YmoBeThere]

I used to think Michael Johnson was fast...

[InSpades]

http://sports.yahoo.com/fantasy/blog/roto_arcade/post/Usain-Bolt-would-run-the-40-in-WHAT-?urn=fantasy,184570

Speculation that Bolt would run a 3.73 40 yard dash at a combine. I think that is stretching it just a bit. To think that he would be basically .6 seconds faster than the fastest guys at the combine. .6 seconds in a 40 yard dash is ridiculous. Spread that out to a 100 meter dash and he'd beat them by 1.5 seconds? There's a bunch of NFL wide receivers who can run mid-10s in the 100m dash. If I had to guess I'd say he'd run around 4 flat.

[JasonEvans]

Bolt wants to try a new event... the long jump (http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/news;_ylt=Amz2H4yGqEjSaCXX2sx7HWmyubYF?slug=ap-bolt-longjump&prov=ap&type=lgns).

--Jason "I sure would not bet against him" Evans

[jma4life]

Regarding the combine times,

combine times start the clock upon first movement whereas in track, the clock starts with the gun. Bolt's reaction time was according to the splits I saw, .146 seconds. So subtracting that from whatever his 40 time was would give you his "combine style" 40.

[Welcome2DaSlopes]

Yea idk how good he would be in the long jump. I wish him the best though.

[InSpades]

Regarding the combine times,

combine times start the clock upon first movement whereas in track, the clock starts with the gun. Bolt's reaction time was according to the splits I saw, .146 seconds. So subtracting that from whatever his 40 time was would give you his "combine style" 40.

That's not the only variable to take into account. The combine times are also timed by hand (correct me if I am wrong here). So you have to take into account the reaction time of the person timing him. This very likely ends up leading towards an even lower time. It is a lot harder to anticipate when a person is going to start a 40 yard dash than when they are going to finish one.

[jma4life]

Unless it's changed the last year, you're right. The start is hand timed. The finish is electric timing. I think the NFL prefers to see low times and that's why they haven't gone fully to electric timing.

I know that with vertical jumping, they switched to the NBA style (measure your reach with one hand, not two, which thus increases your reach, but lowers your vertical as vertical is the difference between maximum touch and reach) and had lower numbers and thus switched back to the traditional football style the following year.

[Welcome2DaSlopes]

always the numbers

[boxofmess2244]

He is just an amazing runner... even when he isn't running his hardest he still beats everyone

[Welcome2DaSlopes]

That sure does tell you somthing