Bolt wins in world leading 9.76 (Rome)

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4N8YV9lvilk

Thanks for the link.

I told you guys after Ostrava that there was nothing to worry about. Those conditions absolutely SUCKED.

To have run 10-flat in those conditions was absolutely brilliant.

Now, on to the video!

The camera couldn't even keep up.

He disappeared from the screen before he hit the finish line.

Shut every critic up with that there run and he didn't look nearly as light on his feet as he did in 2009. His style seems much more powerful than it used to be and his torso seems to move even less than it used to.

If he can shed maybe 5-10 lbs while keeping that sort of power a 9.4 is not that out of the question.

As for this race.

We all know he has the top end speed but he's been missing his midrace acceleration and smoothness out of the blocks. Today he rectified the midrace acceleration that seemed to have been missing before. If he gets his start back to where it was in 2009....

Can't wait to see it.

He's back!!

Powell ran out of his lane for 4 or 5 strides.

Did Bolt have "support?"

Powell didn't look to get out at all well.

Bolt was nails, F U C K I N G A!

He was closer approximating the form I saw him run on the anchor leg in last year's relay.

It's still not there, but 9.75 will do just fine for now.

9.75 corrected! IN MAY! (alright, the end of May)

EVERYONE ELSE IS SCREWED.

Neither Gatlin nor Powell will go 9.75 Powell might get close, but by that time, Bolt will be even faster.

The only guy who has a hope in hell is Blake, and that is .07 faster than he has ever gone, which is very significant.

A healthy Gay could threaten, we won't know for a while yet.

As it now stands, there is, as others have said, Bolt...and everybody else.

Interestingly, that would have been a 9.66 with a max 2.0 allowable wind, placing this performance at right around what I think is the limit of human performance undoped (or maybe just ever so slightly faster), as judged by the Bailey standard. Of course none of that is conclusive, but I consider this to have been a fair run.

Finally he showed some turnover. He appeared to crush Collins on the start, but Collins looked sluggish. Powell missed it, of that there is almost no question. It was nice to see that Powell didn't give up, and that he blew past Collins and didn't let Lemaitre pass him. That is a good sign from Powell.

Speaking of Lemaitre, I knew we would see something like this from him. He has been exactly the same runner for years now, completely stagnated in the 100m. Hopefully he will show better in the 200m.

Sprintgeezer wrote:

A healthy Gay could threaten, we won't know for a while yet.

"A healthy Gay" is almost an oxymoron these days. Either way, a healthy Gay cannot threaten a healthy Bolt. Agree?

whaaat--

Agree!

Yes! This means that Lemaitre will run 9.76 next week

Gay isn't healthy else he'd be running, not announcing his plans to scratch from the 200m.

Yeah, I'm very worried about Tyson Gay. He is a fantastic sprinter as well. I especially like his race preparation, when he points to the sky...

His a small vid of Gay's workout http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEjIOJ_ICuI

depends on who is timing their cycles better. ya dig?

A much better vid of the race, with complete slow-mo, is here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMZaH2r-6cM&feature=related

Powell did in fact snake around his lane early. Bolt's start needs work, but his form looked good--he was cycling smoothly.

Bolt didn't stretch it out in the last 30m like he often does, nor did he lean at all. He could have gotten another .01-.02 with a good lean, and I think he left .02-.03 on the table with that start.

Now THIS was the kind of form I was talking about from the relay--nice and controlled, with good cycling. It will serve him well and hopefully will allow him to avoid injury, it is much smoother than his stretched-out form. I still think that stretching it out in the last 25m is faster if you can do it, like Lewis, Gatlin, Boldon, etc.--but that can wait for another occasion.

This was an absolutely fabulous 9.75, very disciplined, with obvious room for improvement at the start, which can be had with more practice (block practice is where injury often comes from, so it is actually good to see that he isn't yet where he needs to be.

Do you happen to know Bolt's reaction time?

Bolt's RT was .152--only satisfactory

Roach had the best at .125

Powell's was .159, claiming that he didn't hear the gun.

Bolt's RT in his 9.58 was .146, and was .165 in his 9.69!

That .165 is a crap RT. THAT 9.69 was Bolt's best race, corrected it was as good as his 9.58, he gave away .02 in his RT, and he goofed and negative-leaned...incredible.

In Berlin, the RT's were .119, .123, .129, .134, .144, .146, .149, and .165

Bolt went .135 in the semi.

http://berlin.iaaf.org/mm/document/development/research/05/30/83/20090817081546_httppostedfile_wch09_m100_final_13529.pdf

Good vid, now can you please translate? :)

At one point during his interview Bolt was asked about his poor start. He says he was pretty upset because he couldn't hear. "I couldn't hear. I didn't hear set and I didn't hear go"... Seems like he just reacted to the gun.

Kim Collins seems to have had a decent start but he is just physically outmatched by these guys. Lemaitre was impressive considering his poor start. This would have been a perfect race if Blake had run too but Glen Mills wants to build up the suspense going into the Olympics. Of nine competitors, six were Jamaican...WTF?