Run-Down Forums

[Kishan Gill]

As my summer holidays draw to a close , I felt like putting together a ranking of the top sprinters of the nineties. The intention for this bit of trivia is to invite your comments and criticism on my ratings.

I have been impartial and devised my ratings on the following criteria.
1) Top times, with the highest score of 5
2) 2 points per world record set.
3)Championship titles. 2 points for each world or olympic title.
4)Medals won in the above champs. Gold=2 pts silver=1pt Bronze=0.5 pts
5)Consistency over the decade based on annual rankings

As you can see it is a fairly simple system. I have not gone to the trouble of making rigorous analysis of ratings and times as I lack the patience for that and this is just trivia after all to encourage a debate.

I think you will more or less agree with the top 10 names but not necessarily the order. May I empasise this is only for the nineties so does not reflect the overall career span of athletes.

And the ratings are:
1....D Bailey_____18.5 pts
2....M Greene____17.5
3....L Christie____15.5
4....C Lewis______12.5
5....L Burrell_____11
6....F Fredericks__10.5
6...B surin_______10.5
8...A boldon______9
9...D mitchell_____8.5
10.J Drummond___6


Obviously different criteria and point scoring systems will shake up some of those positions. The only result I myself am not too pleased with is Mitchell who I felt should have been a little higher.

[Conway]

The names are definitely the right names ... I'm not sure how the order came to be ...

First of all when you say sprinter, I take it you are only taking into account the 100, as Ato, Frankie, and even Mo and Drummond would rate much higher points based on both the 200 and 100 ...

But even looking at the 100 only Christie would have to rate higher than Donovan as Christie spent a much longer time among the elite than anyone else on that list ... Donovan was only a 3 year man (95/96/97) as far as being among the elite ... Christie was there from 90 thru 96 ... And Frankie spent even more time than that - but without a major gold, though he had many lesser medals ... Drummond was there from '92 thru '99 ... And Mo like Donovan was only 3 years ... And as much as I am a Mo fan, that's just not enough to claim the decade ... And Carl only had a couple elite seasons during the 90's ('90, '91, '92) ... But Burrell routinely beat him and Burrell had TWO lowerings of the WR - but no major gold ...

Anyway ... I'd reorder them myself, but defintely got the right people ...
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Conway
Speed Thrills

[Dan]

As long as longevity isn't the key criteria, I think that list is almost exactly what I would have come up with subjectively.

Dan
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[Kishan Gill]

It was a listing for 100m only. As a total sprinter than Fredericks would have taken top spot I agree.

It was a combination of longevity and accolades and records so the likes of bailey and mo benefited from the latter two categories.

If just based on logevity than I suppose christie, Mitchell, Drummond, surin and fredericks would have been in the top half of the table.

I suppose it is easy to choose the top ten names. I could not think of any other sprinters getting close other than maybe marsh, Ray stewart and the nigerian duo Ezinwa and adeneikin but still way of the tenth mark.
Maybe not too many points seperating drummond and marsh based on the criteria I used.

[Dan]

Andre Cason might squeeze in if you're rounding out the 10-15 fringe types.

Dan
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[Kishan Gill]

Cason completely slipped my mind. I guess he was a dimunitive figure after all.

He was on my original shortlist and could probably challenge drummonds position. I would say his best year was just 1993 with some mixed sucess in other years till 1994. He won a silver and ran 9.92. Drummond has no medal to his credit but was consistently at the top from 1992 onwards.
In this case longevity won over short term success.

[Dan]

He was definitely a shooting star; probably best remembered for his talk of running sub-9.0 seconds.

Dan
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[Kishan Gill]

Cason showed promise after his world junior record in 1987 of 10.08,
1992 could have been his big year but for his injury.

He did run a great series through the rounds in 1993 with 9.96, 9.94 and 9.92 and I was surprised he actually didn,t go under 9.90 and run christie close in the final.

[X King]

[Kishan Gill]

It was a great series culminating in a windy 9.85 win.