Tyson says this is the #1 season
Is this the greatest year of men's sprinting ever? While the year doesn't have a major championship the performances of this year arguably make it the greatest of all time. Just some facts:
- 3 times a runner has run under 9.80 seconds….in all of history this has only been done 14 other times under any conditions. 9 of those were under illegal circumstances (doping, wind aided, etc.)
- Asafa Powell has run under 10 seconds more than any other person has in one season (11 at the time of this writing).
- Xavier Carter turned out one of the greatest single meet sprint performances of all time at the NCAA championships winning 4 gold medals in impressive fashion.
- Carter later went on to run the second fastest performance of all time in the 200m (19.63).
- There have been more sub 10s than any other season (25) that I can recall.
- Jeremy Wariner is having a Michael Johnson-like season in the 400m having run a seasonal best of 43.62 with 3 times total under the 44 second mark.
- Liu Xiang destroys the 110m Hurdles World Record and pulls Dominique Arnold under the old WR to break an American Record.
- Multiple all-time top 10 performances in every men's sprint event:
- 100m – #1t performance tied 3 times (2x Powell, 1x Gatlin); #8t (Gay)
- 200m – #2 (Carter); #5 (Gay)
- 400m – #7 (Wariner)
- 110mH – #1 (Xiang); #2 (Arnold)
- Tyson Gay becomes the top 100-200m performer of all time (based on time) surpassing such greats as Carl Lewis, Frank Fredericks, and Ato Boldon.
- The average of Tyson Gay's top three 200m times is a mind-boggling 19.73….that is the faster than Carl Lewis EVER ran.
- 6 athletes have run under 20.00 seconds in the 200m.