Last Friday the track and field community thought it had a new world record in the men’s 100-meter dash. American sprinter Justin Gatlin was believed to have run a time of 9.76 seconds at the Qatar Grand Prix, which would have broken the 9.77 time set by rival Jamaican runner Asafa Powell.
But it now turns out Gatlin only equaled the record and will have to share it with Powell. A timing error prompted the sport’s governing body Wednesday to take away Gatlin’s announced record. The International Association of Athletics Federations said his time was recorded at 9.766, and should have been manually rounded up to 9.77.
Gatlin’s time has now been adjusted to 9.77 and, pending ratification, will equal the record set by Powell in Athens, Greece, on June 14, 2005.
The IAAF uses times recorded to one-hundredth of a second, with figures always rounded up. A spokesman for the IAAF said this was the first time a world record has been taken away days later because of a timing adjustment.
Understandably, Gatlin was unhappy with this turn of events. In a statement posted on the USA Track and Field website, he said, “It is very disappointing to me that it has taken five days to determine the official time of a race with this significance. I remain confident that I am the World’s Fastest Man and I look forward to proving it once again. My parents raised me to be a good sport but I don’t want to share the World Record.”
The 24-year-old Brooklyn, New York native is the reigning Olympic and World Champion in the 100.
3 comments ↓
Can you blame him. I wouldn’t want to share either.
record or not that’s still hella fast! THIS WEEK IN PINK http://blackartiste.blogspot.com/
Hmmm, even though the record shows they are tied, it still means that it is very likely that Gatlin ran the 100m faster. Gatlin’s time was reported to be 9.766 which they are rounding up to 9.77. I’m curious what they would do with a 9.765, round up or down? I think the solution is that they should probably keep thousandths of a second for the 100m and 200m track events.