Fastest Man Alive

With Tyson Gay's recent victories in the 100m dash at the London and Stolkholm Diamond League meets, including a decisive win over world record holder Usain Bolt in the former, I am compelled to make comparisons across foot speed categories.


Tyson Gay vs Usain Bolt - Stockholm Diamond League 2010
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London Diamond League Meet - Asafa Powell and Usain Bolt were absent

10s is a good showing of man's top speed, however, a longer time period would show man's work capacity, his ability to sustain a high speed. The Adidas Super7 commercial makes a comparison of Tyson Gay and Haile Gebrselassie in the 200m. Flashback to Sydney 2000, in the Olympic 10km final. Haile was able to out-kick Paul Tergat, clocking in at a blistering 25.4 seconds after having run 9800m. To put this in perspective, Bolt's world record is 19.19. Now 6 seconds is a fairly large differential, however, Haile had already run hard for 9800m. Another consideration is the fact that Haile's time was based off a running start as opposed to a dead start. Nevertheless, it is time that the general public be more aware of the speed of distance runners and understand that they are not all slow twitch fibers.




Behind the scenes footage of two greats.


The Sydney 10km

Shortly after Beijing, where the world witnessed the dominance of Usain Bolt and Kenenisa Bekele (5km, 10km champion), people were looking to set up a showdown at 600m between the two. Obviously, most were siding with Bolt and his marketable, flashy style. In comparison, few pay attention to the 12.5 and 25 lap competitions like they do to the quarter lap showcase. Yet Bekele had been untouchable for a stretch, which I find just as amazing as Bolt's speed. This is because the distance races are a little more tactical and often team's will team up to try to throw off your pace. In Sydney, it was the Eritrean who tried to tire out Bekele early.


We've all seen many videos of Usain, here's a world record which will be just as hard to eclipse.

Now the 600m unification race will most likely never be run, because it would stray too far from either runner's event. However, anything is possible and this would be a true showcase of running talent, and a chance for Bekele to get out of Bolt's and Gebrselassie's shadow.





The only comparison that can be made between the two athletes is their respective 400 and 1500m personal bests.


BRUSSELS (AP)- Bekele set a personal best of 3 minutes, 32.35 over 1,500 two years ago, a time that would make him the 13th best performer of 2009. Bolt's top mark over 400 is 45.28 in 2007, which would be the 28th fastest time of this year.