coach d wrote:
31 Years ago Pietro Mennea ran 19.72 and held the WR for 17 years. To this day, it is still the 20th fastest 200 ever run, and only 7 black sprinters have run faster--in 31 years.
AFTER (yes, on the SAME DAY) running 19.72, he ALSO ran 10.02!
Without question, on modern tracks, that 10.02 would be worth sub-9.9, and God only knows how fast he could have run the 100 without running the 200 first.
Menea was also notorious for running out of his lane, and was DQ'ed for it on numerous occasions. T&FN even had a pic of him well within the adjacent lane. He was so brash about it that most European officials did not want to countenance the idea that their "golden boy" was in fact cheating.
Was he talented? Absolutely. You don't run 10.02 on good looks. But in the 200, he was....Pietro...