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Conway · Posted: Fri Oct 04, 2002 10:32 am Post subject: Barrier Breaking Teens

Talking about MLF missing being the first teen to break the 10.00 barrier made me start thinking about teens and barriers ... Of the major sprint barriers (10.00, 20.00, 44.00) only one has been broken so far - Steve Lewis 43.87 ... MLF was oh so close to going sub 10 and Roy Martin got close to going sub 20 ...

Given that the teen population in the sport seems sudenly to be on track to surpassing previous generations (reminds me of the mid 80's) does anyone anticipate that any of the above barriers will fall in the near future ???

Conway

Dan · Posted: Fri Oct 04, 2002 10:46 am Post subject:

How close did Gatlin come to a sub-20 as a teen? I'm guessing he was 20 this past year?

It seems probable that someone will break through those barriers, although I'm not feeling near confident enough to predict who, when, and where...

Dan

Justin · Varsity Joined: 08 Oct 2001 Posts: 312 Location: London

No-one has broken 10.00 for 100m legally; Carl Lewis ran just that shortly before his 20th birthday in 1981. He also ran 9.99w in June 1981, also before his 20th.

Leonard Scott's 9.83 (7.1m/s) in 1999 is the fastest a teenager has ever run 100m in any conditions.

Tim Montgomery's 9.96 in 1994 was probably slightly wind-assisted, given a 1.7 reading from a wind guage sheltered by a stand.

Mark Lewis-Francis ran 9.97 in the qf of the WC in 2001, again probably wind-assisted. He ran 9.97 with a 2.3 wind again this year.

Roy Martin ran 9.97w in 1986, a few months before his 20th.

Harvey Glance ran two 9.9 hand times in 1976; Johnny Jones ran one in 1977 and Brendan Christian this year. Glance ran the first ever 9.8 just a week after his 20th birthday in 1977. Also wind-assisted was Mike Taylor's 9.8 in 1983, Mel Lattany's 9.9 in 1978 and Amar Johnson's 9.9 in 1998.

Looking at that series of near-misses, it's just bad luck that there's been no official sub 10. I think MLF was heading very near there in the Commonwealth Games. His 10.04 this year at least clears up the WJR, which was 10.06 by Chambers even though Davidson Ezinwa ran 10.05 in 1990.

Closest to a sub-20 legal was Lorenzo Daniel, 20.07 WJR in 1985, same year Roy Martin ran 20.13 (Daniel ran his time just 1 week after Martin's and they are still the top 2 all-time juniors).

Justin

Conway · Posted: Fri Oct 04, 2002 11:41 am Post subject:

Gatlin had a windy 19.86 as a 19 year old !!!! So he did and he didn't break the barrier ... Wink

So he and MLF (9.97 but under the guise of faulty wind guage) were both actually under barriers, but not officially ...

The current crop of youngsters reminds me of the time when Henry Thomas, Roy Martin, Joe Deloach, Floyd Heard, Mike Marsh and a few others were all coming out of high school - in the same year !!!! Now there is a group their PRs in order are 20.15, 20.05, 19.75, 19.88, 19.73 !!!! Greatest graduating sprint class in history bar none !!!

Conway

Justin · Varsity Joined: 08 Oct 2001 Posts: 312 Location: London

Correction, of course MLF's 10.04 isn't a WJR as he turned 20 this year (Sep 4th).

Justin Gatlin was born 10 Feb 82 so his 19.86 this year was a few months past his teens. However, he also ran 19.86 (but wind-assisted) in 2001, matching Roy Martin's 19.86w a few months before his 20th in 1986.

Davidson Ezinwa was credited with 19.9h in 1989 (at age 17!).

No-one besides Steve Lewis has come anywhere near 44.00 - next fastest on the junior all-time list are 44.66 and 44.69.

Justin

Justin · Varsity Joined: 08 Oct 2001 Posts: 312 Location: London

1986 also saw Stanley Kerr run 10.10 and high-schooler Derrick Florence run 10.13 to break Houston McTear's legendary 10.16 HS record.

Dennis Mitchell was also in that group, as was Michael Johnson (born Sep 67) although he took longer to come to the boil. Andre Cason (10.08 WJR in 1988) came a year or so later along with Jon Drummond.

The late 70s were also great for junior US sprinting - Glance, McTear, Jones then Mel Lattany, Calvin Smith, Carl Lewis and Stanley Floyd.

Seems like a 10-year cycle...late 70s/early 80s; late 80s/early 90s; late 90s, early 00s. Perhaps.

Justin

Dan · Posted: Fri Oct 04, 2002 12:49 pm Post subject:

Justin ... I'm speechless! Smile

(Conway, you managed to impress me with some solid stats presenting, too).

Conway · Posted: Fri Oct 04, 2002 1:16 pm Post subject:

Justin · Varsity Joined: 08 Oct 2001 Posts: 312 Location: London

Ronnie-Ray Smith ran 10.14 age 19 at those famous 1968 US Champs. That was behind Hines' 10.03, which was the fastest auto time ever when run and stood as the world sea-level record until Carl Lewis ran that 10.00 at age 19 in 1981.

However, the auto-timing was unofficial and the official times for Hines and Smith were both 9.9. These were the first ever 9.9s and both were ratified as world records so Smith has a claim at being first teen sub 10 even though we know he ran 10.14!

Valeriy Borzov also emerged as a junior in the late 60s, BTW.

I'd need better hand-timing lists to dig deeper into late 60s juniors.

Justin

Conway · Posted: Fri Oct 04, 2002 2:10 pm Post subject:

Not a lot of 100 meter hand times for US juniors ... Most races were 100 yds and the big goal then was 9.3 ... Which equates roughly to 10.2 ... And given that most races were also run on dirt tracks makes it even harder ot really guage what youngsters were doing back then ... 9.3 remained the standard until McTear who went with several 9.3's; finally got to 9.2; then had the infamous 9.0 !!!! But HOuston was most consistent around 9.3 for yards while his meter races (he ran more national/international meets than other high schoolers) were around 10.0/10.1 ...

If you use him as sort of a barometer I would think that there were a handful of guys in the 60 that might have been somewhere around Ronnie Ray and McTear in the 10.1x range ... Which would hold steady with what the cream of the crop high schoolers did at their peaks in the 70's, 80's, and 90's ...

Conway

Justin · Varsity Joined: 08 Oct 2001 Posts: 312 Location: London

So much for my showing off above...

Seun Ogunkoya ran 9.97 in Formia on 13 July 1997, aged 19.5 yrs. He was born in Dec 77. Thus, the 'wait' for MLF to be the first teen under 10.00 was a wild goose chase!

Justin

Paul · Posted: Thu Oct 31, 2002 5:16 pm Post subject:

How about Budd's 20.2 in the early 60's as a high schooler??

Distance_Guru · Posted: Thu Oct 31, 2002 5:33 pm Post subject:

I had my 800 runners doing 100 repeats today, and it reminded me exactly how suspicous I am of sprint times turned in that were before the use of automated timing systems.
_________________
Time is the fire in which we burn

Dan · Posted: Thu Oct 31, 2002 5:56 pm Post subject:

Who the heck are Ogunkoya and Budd??

Dan

Justin · Varsity Joined: 08 Oct 2001 Posts: 312 Location: London

Seun Ogunkoya (Nigerian) was second to Francis Obikwelu in the 96 World Juniors. He ran that 9.97 in 1997 and in 1998 improved to 9.92A (2nd in World Cup) and 9.94 (won African Champs from Fredericks 9.97). He also won in Zurich in 98 in 9.96, all before his 21st birthday. He then all but disappeared, managing 10.27 in 1999 and 10.1h in 2000.

Budd I assume is Frank Budd, I'd need to look him up.

Justin

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