Did the meet use sensors for false starts in the blocks? Perhaps it was a full field false starts that the judges just missed. That sort of thing does happen?
I don't think there was any wind gauge error per se. Wind was light to moderate all day, and when you watch the video and interviews after you see no evidence of strong winds. The wind was gusting shifting a bit however. What is possible is that the ideal '200 diagonal tail wind' prevailed during this event. This would be a diagonal tail wind blowing at maybe around 3 m/s or so at roughly 45 degrees or a bit less. It would be optimal because there would be no real headwind at the start, especially for the outer lanes, and there would a maximum (and kind of illegal) slingshot boost rounding the bend, and then you would have a helpful tail/cross wind up the straight - but measured as a vector down the home straight it would register a legal 1.7 m/s.
Rojo and Jonathan, you guys are either stupid or disingenuous (in my opinion, probably both), and your rhetoric of publicly calling into question the validity of performances in this manner has a real impact on people's careers.
Gout Gout just ran 19.67 in a barely legal wind, and you're blatantly ignoring the effects of wind on performance. Let's take a look at two other performances by Gout in the last year while actually paying attention to wind.
1. 20.10 into 1.9 m/s headwind (July, 2025). This would be worth ~19.77 in today's wind. 2. 19.84 with a 2.2 m/s tailwind (April, 2025). This would be worth ~19.87 in today's wind.
Thus, at the age of 17, Gout twice ran performances that correspond to 0.1 and 0.2 seconds off today's performance. He's 18 now, and it's not unreasonable that he would be 0.1-0.2 seconds better at 18 than he was at 17. Anyone who's paid attention to this sport the last few years would have guessed that Gout could go well under 20 with a barely legal tailwind. Either you haven't paid attention to this sport or you're stupid. Maybe both?
Rojo and Jonathan, you guys are either stupid or disingenuous (in my opinion, probably both), and your rhetoric of publicly calling into question the validity of performances in this manner has a real impact on people's careers.
Gout Gout just ran 19.67 in a barely legal wind, and you're blatantly ignoring the effects of wind on performance. Let's take a look at two other performances by Gout in the last year while actually paying attention to wind.
1. 20.10 into 1.9 m/s headwind (July, 2025). This would be worth ~19.77 in today's wind. 2. 19.84 with a 2.2 m/s tailwind (April, 2025). This would be worth ~19.87 in today's wind.
Thus, at the age of 17, Gout twice ran performances that correspond to 0.1 and 0.2 seconds off today's performance. He's 18 now, and it's not unreasonable that he would be 0.1-0.2 seconds better at 18 than he was at 17. Anyone who's paid attention to this sport the last few years would have guessed that Gout could go well under 20 with a barely legal tailwind. Either you haven't paid attention to this sport or you're stupid. Maybe both?
How do you explain the rest of the top seven all running personal bests as well? Most by massive margins? That's not normal.
I'm not ignoring the wind at all. Actually, I suspect the wind is the reason why the times were so fast. I certainly thought Gout was capable of going under 20 with a legal wind. But when you run 19.67, I'm going to raise an eyebrow.
I don't think the clock was wrong or that the track was short. The most likely explanation, as others have speculated, is that they caught a friendly tailwind on the turn (which Gout and Murphy have been unfortunate with in the past) and it wasn't fully reflected by the official +1.7 reading.
I'm not calling for the results to be invalidated. But when the top five in a sprint race all run massive PRs, it's fair to wonder why.
This is the most idiotic post I've ever seen. If everyone in a distance race ran a PR, you wouldn't think twice about it.
Your tweet was implying something nefarious and now you are trying to do damage control by walking it back and saying you think it's the wind (after reading the smart posts in the thread and learning how the wind gauge works in a 200).
LRC just published an article about how much wind can affect a discus regarding the American Record, obviously wind affects other events too.
There is absolutely no reason to think this race was anomalous. It was an irresponsible tweet and and a stupid defense of that tweet.
Rojo and Jonathan, you guys are either stupid or disingenuous (in my opinion, probably both), and your rhetoric of publicly calling into question the validity of performances in this manner has a real impact on people's careers.
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We're not publicly calling into question the 'validity' of the performance. He ran the time. There was a wind-gauge. It's his pb.
We're just wondering what explains everyone in the field basically running a huge pb. Is it repeatable is really the question?
Might the wind have been bigger than recorded, or swirling? Was it just a perfect weather day? Was there something about the race was run (like London 2012 in the 800 where you had Rudisha serve as the perfect rabbit for the field) that made it happen.
It reminds me of Knighton's 19.49 in April of 2022. Huge outlier.
When Knighton ran that (and was younger than Gout Gout is right now), I wrote the following in defense of the time:
One thing that is interesting to note is that taking a big chunk of time off of your 200 PB like Knighton isn’t that unusual. Of the three men history faster than Knighton at 200, all three of them improved by at least 0.42 in a single season. Knighton has improved by 0.35 this year and by .49 last year.
Usain Bolt went from 19.75 to 19.30 at age 21 (0.45 improvement) Michael Johnson went from 19.79 to 19.32 at age 28 (0.47 improvement) Yohan Blake went from 19.78 to 19.26 at age 21 (0.52 improvement)
PS. And I'll admit we at the time said on the podcast that Knighton was the favorite for 200 at Worlds and discussed whether he could break 19.00 for 200.
Even if none of the athletes can repeat these marks again, it doesn't discredit them.
This type of thing happens all the time in the 100m and 200m. Wind makes a huge difference and it can be pretty rare to get the perfect wind at the perfect angle and it's barely below the allowable limit.
You should understand how wind works because that's the main reason for a pacer in a distance race - to block the wind and air resistance.
How often are there two top runners in peak form in a big race pushing the entire field with a near borderline tailwind? It's the perfect setting for a fast field.
We see this in distance races. A fast time is run and many PR because they get “pulled along” by the leaders.
The first time I saw Gout I was amazed at how differently he seemed to run. It looked like the track was moving underneath him as he just ate up ground. He just doesn’t seem to be like any other sprinter we’ve seen.
It's funny how the track "moves underneath" runners when they have a massive tailwind.
In some venues, the wind can blow strong in the bend and the first part of the straight and the decrease on the part where the windreader is placed. Common knowlege.
Rojo and Jonathan, you guys are either stupid or disingenuous (in my opinion, probably both), and your rhetoric of publicly calling into question the validity of performances in this manner has a real impact on people's careers.
Gout Gout just ran 19.67 in a barely legal wind, and you're blatantly ignoring the effects of wind on performance. Let's take a look at two other performances by Gout in the last year while actually paying attention to wind.
1. 20.10 into 1.9 m/s headwind (July, 2025). This would be worth ~19.77 in today's wind. 2. 19.84 with a 2.2 m/s tailwind (April, 2025). This would be worth ~19.87 in today's wind.
Thus, at the age of 17, Gout twice ran performances that correspond to 0.1 and 0.2 seconds off today's performance. He's 18 now, and it's not unreasonable that he would be 0.1-0.2 seconds better at 18 than he was at 17. Anyone who's paid attention to this sport the last few years would have guessed that Gout could go well under 20 with a barely legal tailwind. Either you haven't paid attention to this sport or you're stupid. Maybe both?
How do you explain the rest of the top seven all running personal bests as well? Most by massive margins? That's not normal.
I'm not ignoring the wind at all. Actually, I suspect the wind is the reason why the times were so fast. I certainly thought Gout was capable of going under 20 with a legal wind. But when you run 19.67, I'm going to raise an eyebrow.
I don't think the clock was wrong or that the track was short. The most likely explanation, as others have speculated, is that they caught a friendly tailwind on the turn (which Gout and Murphy have been unfortunate with in the past) and it wasn't fully reflected by the official +1.7 reading.
I'm not calling for the results to be invalidated. But when the top five in a sprint race all run massive PRs, it's fair to wonder why.
I agree with you that it's the wind, as well as the championship nature, and Gout pulling people along. What I disagree is ambiguously publicly asking questions of this nature in a manner that can be interpreted as a suggestion that the track is short, the clock is wrong, or the Aussies have a sophisticated new doping program. If you think it's the wind, say that. Don't just ask open-ended questions in this way. As a reporter, it's not only sloppy, but it has real consequences.
While I'm not going to talk through all 5 guys and spend 20 minutes writing a post, I'll note the big improvements tended to come from young athletes. Some of these guys were sitting on olddddd PBs that occurred a few years ago when they were 19/20 and have seemingly underperformed since then. Conditions were good in Sydney, wind was nearly as good as possible for a legal time, and it's not at all unprecedented for the runner running the race of his life up front to drag a bunch of others to a new PB. How many times has Jakob done that? Should we raise an eyebrow at those? What about the guys Bolt dragged along to PBs (7 out of 11 already world-class athletes PBing because Jakob led them there at 2024 olympics)? Should we raise an eyebrow at races where half of an already world-class field ran a PB because Bolt led them to it?
London 2012 David Rudisha 1:40.91 WR (+.10) Nijel Amos1:41.73 WJR, NR (+2.06) Timothy Kitum1:42.53 PB (+1.41) Duane Solomon1:42.82 PB (+0.62) Nick Symmonds 1:42.95 PB (+0.81) Mohammed Aman1:43.20 NR (+0.32) *only athlete to run quicker post this race, but also only athlete to be banned Abubaker Kaki 1:43.32 SB *no PB but never broke 1:44 ever again Andrew Osagie1:43.77 PB (+0.84)
Have to wonder - only one athlete ever ran quicker again after this race again and they were eventually banned from the sport. 7 of the 8 athletes ran lifetime bests! Surely there was something wrong with the timing? How could 7 athlete never run quicker again for the rest of their lives? Maybe the track was short? Some of the athletes in the races were only teenagers and went on to have long careers! Prob started off the 400m line in error!
Or maybe, just maybe, there are races that are just magical and can never be repeated? I hope for Australian sprinting that this is not the case.
PS I love Jonathan, so please read this in a jovial manner....even if the facts are true :)
if you look at the video just before the start, they have a view where they shown them in the blocks with the windsock behind gout's head. the windsock is going absollutely bonkers. i'll try to find the picture later.
personally i don't care, i think it's great for them getting the official pbs on the board and they'll laugh about it one day when they got the perfect go at nationals
How do you explain the rest of the top seven all running personal bests as well? Most by massive margins? That's not normal.
I'm not ignoring the wind at all. Actually, I suspect the wind is the reason why the times were so fast. I certainly thought Gout was capable of going under 20 with a legal wind. But when you run 19.67, I'm going to raise an eyebrow.
I don't think the clock was wrong or that the track was short. The most likely explanation, as others have speculated, is that they caught a friendly tailwind on the turn (which Gout and Murphy have been unfortunate with in the past) and it wasn't fully reflected by the official +1.7 reading.
I'm not calling for the results to be invalidated. But when the top five in a sprint race all run massive PRs, it's fair to wonder why.
I agree with you that it's the wind, as well as the championship nature, and Gout pulling people along. What I disagree is ambiguously publicly asking questions of this nature in a manner that can be interpreted as a suggestion that the track is short, the clock is wrong, or the Aussies have a sophisticated new doping program. If you think it's the wind, say that. Don't just ask open-ended questions in this way. As a reporter, it's not only sloppy, but it has real consequences.
While I'm not going to talk through all 5 guys and spend 20 minutes writing a post, I'll note the big improvements tended to come from young athletes. Some of these guys were sitting on olddddd PBs that occurred a few years ago when they were 19/20 and have seemingly underperformed since then. Conditions were good in Sydney, wind was nearly as good as possible for a legal time, and it's not at all unprecedented for the runner running the race of his life up front to drag a bunch of others to a new PB. How many times has Jakob done that? Should we raise an eyebrow at those? What about the guys Bolt dragged along to PBs (7 out of 11 already world-class athletes PBing because Jakob led them there at 2024 olympics)? Should we raise an eyebrow at races where half of an already world-class field ran a PB because Bolt led them to it?
The former head of WADA has said this year that dopers are getting away with it. It can never be discounted now as a factor in any achievement in the sport. It is more than likely to be present. Exceptional performances suggest it.
I think it's highly likely a timer malfunction. At the CA high school state meet, one heat of the 100 was won in 10.01 and the four guys behind him also set massive PR's and were the four time qualifiers for the final. The 10.01 guy ran 10.27 in the final and the other guys from his heat ran more than .2 slower than their heat. The wrong time qualifiers ran that final. Too late. I've seen lists that accepted all the times from the questionable heat. How do you prevent this from happening?