The best sprint season ever??

thirtyfoot

Wallace Spearmon has just run 19.65 to win in Korea with nobody within an asses roar of him, unbelievable!!!!!. As regards times, this has been the best sprint season I can remember.

100 Gatlin 9.77, Powell 9.77, Gay 9.84
200 Carter 19.63, Spearmon 19.65, Gay 19.68
400 Wariner 43.62

Shame nobody gives a toss anymore!

Pherekydes

Funny you should include Gatlin.

Sub 10 performances at 100m:
1997 38
1998 34
2004 33
2006 30 (Including Gatlin)

Sub 20 performances at 200m:
1996 20
2006 16

Sub 44 performances at 400m:
1992 6
1988 5
1995 4
1996 4
1993 3
1998 3
1999 3
2000 3
2006 3

It was a vintage year by any standard, but perhaps not the best ever, but across all three distances maybe it was.

I enjoyed many of these performances immensely. Pays to have Sky digital (for Eurosport's coverage) and NTL (for Setanta's Golden league coverage)!

Pop quiz: How many of these performances did we see on RTE? :mad:

thirtyfoot

Slow coach wrote:

I enjoyed many of these performances immensely. Pays to have Sky digital (for Eurosport's coverage) and NTL (for Setanta's Golden league coverage)!

Pop quiz: How many of these performances did we see on RTE? :mad:

I really like Eurosport, the commentators on it used to annoy me but they kind of grow on you. When the BBC do it, they do it the best, especially when MJ is on talking about the GB sprinters. RTE athletics coverage is gas craic, you might as well get the Apres Match boys in there.

The 200m is the most exciting, 3 guys in the 19.60's. If Bolt stays healthy he could join them next season. They are all young too, could be a golden age of sprinting.

Yeah, '96 was a great year, MJ and Frankie in the 200 (Frankie must have run 7 or 8 sub 20's that year), and of course MJ in the 400.

Common Sense

Tingle, disagree with your comments about RTE - might as well have the Apres Match guys instead of Eamonn Coghlan? Don't think so.

On the matter under discussion, while I can't argue with the statistics put forward by Slow Coach, I'm really excited about the 200 in the coming seasons. Alread 2 of the 3 fastest of all time and, as someone else pointed out, Bolt also has the potential to get among them. Between them I'd be fairly confident that not only will we see some spectacular racing at this event in the next couple of years but I'd also expect MJ's record to go. Who could have dared make that kind of prediction even this time last year. OK, I know some of you may think I'm losing the plot but at least you have to admit its possible.

Linford

Common Sense wrote:

Tingle, disagree with your comments about RTE - might as well have the Apres Match guys instead of Eamonn Coghlan? Don't think so.

I think Tingle might have been refering to the pathetic analysis by Gerry Kiernan. It really gets on my nerves when I see him on RTE, he hasn't a clue about any of the events outside long distance running, doesn't know who any of the athletes are, his predictions, most notably Derval O'Rourke's, were invariably wrong. I think Nolan described him perfectly in 2004 as nothing more than a marathon runner / cross country slogger.

Common Sense wrote:

On the matter under discussion, while I can't argue with the statistics put forward by Slow Coach, I'm really excited about the 200 in the coming seasons. Alread 2 of the 3 fastest of all time and, as someone else pointed out, Bolt also has the potential to get among them. Between them I'd be fairly confident that not only will we see some spectacular racing at this event in the next couple of years but I'd also expect MJ's record to go. Who could have dared make that kind of prediction even this time last year. OK, I know some of you may think I'm losing the plot but at least you have to admit its possible.

While three guys running 19.6 is pretty amazing it is a far cry from MJs 19.32. I think it will be a while before we see it go.

thirtyfoot

Linford wrote:

While three guys running 19.6 is pretty amazing it is a far cry from MJs 19.32. I think it will be a while before we see it go.

MJ was 29 when he ran his WR and these boys are young - Xman is 21, Spearmon is 22, Gay is 24 and Bolt is only 20. At least now we are thinking it could be broken, I remember when he ran it I was thinking that'll never be broken, but these guys are so young they could do it, or else they could all be the next Joe DeLoach who ran 19.75 when he was 21!

Xman trained for american football last winter and ran a load of races so he has loads to offer when he concentrates totally on track next season and picks his races but I read somewhere that he is going back to american football after beijing so he maybe only has two seasons, not sure if thats true. I think Gay has the potential to go closest, he was pushing Powell in a few of those 100's late in the season and with that pure speed who knows.