New Japanese JR record for 100m... 10.01 seconds!

Also a Chinese national record of 10.04 last week

http://www.iaaf.org/news/report/chinas-lu-huihui-improves-asian-javelin-recor

I believe this was also a world record for fastest 100 m ever done by a man wearing pink shorts.

Yes, I was impressed with lane 8 too.

This kid is probably one of the fastest clean sprinters on the planet right now.

let's hope he doesn't have the japanese men's curse on 'im: never being able to compete well overseas

すっげー !

unglorious wrote:

The new Lemaitre?

Yeah, really similar

Wow, indeed. How tall is this guy?

Vent: "morally"

lol

This is totally unsurprising, and is well within the tradition of Japanese sprinting.

He is cut from the same mold physically, uses that ridiculous bunch start, has essentially no drive phase, etc., just like all other Japanese sprinters.

OK, so he goes below 10, let's say he even does it cleanly. Excellent, but it won't get him anywhere. What, the Japanese can't field any sprinters who aren't of that identical mold? What about some guy who is 6 feet tall, and thinner, like Xiang? What about some 6'5" guy? What about a 5'10" guy who knows how to stride it out? Great turnover is one thing, but winning championship 100's comes from better reach--just ask Kim Collins.

Great for the relay, though, which will only get better.

Expect China to be REALLY pissed if Japan goes sub-10 before they do. I was just talking to a friend in Beijing who says that some people are actually paying attention to this--therefore, I would not be surprised to see some Chinese coming out of seemingly nowhere to run some good times.

I feel it.

wicker wrote:

let's hope he doesn't have the japanese men's curse on 'im: never being able to compete well overseas

lol why do you think they have that curse?

But remember Liu Xiang, everyone said the same about him.

This kid is so small and his form and rate are so perfect its a good question where the improvements are going to come from.

5'6" at best. He might get up 5'7.5" Rodgers/Frater sized when he's full growed.

The only great short guys have been Cason and Frater, if memory serves.

Fasuba's 9.85 or whatever it was was bogus.

Off the top of my head I can't think of anyone else who has been super-short and substantially sub-10.

Here is a vid of Kiryu, with slow-mo:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iy-BuDc1_wo

Also, the pink shorts comment was classic.

it's totally unsurprising that a Japanese runner would go 10.01 at 17? okay.

And after that fantastic year (2003) Darrel Brown showed no improvement. He ran under 10 once...(9.99) and peaked too early. Similar with Jeff Demps.

For me, sub-9.90 is only for doped athletes.

wicker wrote:

let's hope he doesn't have the japanese men's curse on 'im: never being able to compete well overseas

Do tell, I'm sure many of us would like to hear you expound on this. Don't forget the time Japan beat the U.S. for a relay medal at the Beijing Olympics.

I know Japan is meticulous about some things, but does that guy look 17 to you? He looks like he's in his mid-30's.

Maybe the advanced aging comes from...

You know, China has been getting faster, and there really needed to be a Japanese response, to save face.

And no, it's still not surprising, he's still in the same mold.

If he had smoked a serious sub-10, say he'd had more wind, I would question the timing. He runs exactly the same as all the rest of the low-10.0x Asians.

He has that great neurology right now, and seems to have "developed" early--but looking at him in comparison to someone like Gemili, to me Gemili has the greater potential of the two. More power, naturally better form, and I can't wait to see what he does this year.

Looks like a kid to me:

http://www.asahi.com/dcm_cs/img/TKY201304290029.jpg

Hardly a Japanese response to China, either. Japan has been turning out guys under 10.10 for several years. China, not so much.

Asians are naturally fast-twitch but have absolutely no sports culture to speak of to develop these abilities. Look at how many of our boys in the US, Canada and Europe have done the 100 and how many sub-100s have we produced? 1.

How many are seriously running in Japan and China and India and look how currently Japan is the fastest nation on earth when it comes to low 100s. Also Japanese athletes don't use drugs. They see it as a moral failing and against the budo precepts.

He looks young. Is he 17? He might not be, but he still looks fairly young. Asians appear younger at that age and he looks older than the average 17 y/o asian. His muscle proportions are also more in line with caucasian/african athletes than asian athletes.

His problem may be when he gets to Europe competing with 9.8 guys. When you're getting beaten it can be demoralizing and could hurt his times especially not having the experience.

If he had a better lean he would have gone under 10. If he gets a big tailwind and runs virtually the same race he'll dip under 10. Incredibly impressive for a 17 y/o the question is can he improve with such a technically good race.