Check out the 100m basic top list as of 27 Aug 2018. These are all of the athletes sub-10 basic this year:
1. Baker 9.87 - 9.87 (-0.1)
2. Prescod 9.91 - 9.94 (-0.5)
2. Coleman 9.91 - 9.94 (-0.5)
4. Hughes 9.93 - 9.91 (0.4)
4. Vicaut 9.93 - 9.92 (0.3)
4. Cisse 9.93 - 9.94 (-0.2) **
4. Lyles 9.93 - 9.89 (0.7)
8. Su 9.94 - 9.91 (0.2)
8. Rodgers 9.94 - 9.92 (0.4)
8. Simbine 9.94 - 9.93 (0.2)
11. Young 9.95 - 9.92 (0.7)
11. Blake 9.95 - 9.95 (0.1)
13. Tracey 9.97 - 9.96 (0.2)
14. Gatlin 9.99 - 10.03 (-0.7)
** I have included Cisse's result for now, but I haven't included it in the below stats because he hasn't been able to come anywhere near that time since, and he is not injured.
13 athletes, ZERO 9.5's, ZERO 9.6's, ZERO 9.7's
ONE 9.8
12 athletes occupying a spread of only 0.08, from 9.91-9.99
8 athletes occupying a spread of only 0.02, from 9.93-9.95
IMO, so far this is a significant year. Of these athletes, only one really may have been better than the list indicates: Vicaut, had he tried harder in his semifinal win at WC in Berlin (he tweaked something in warmups for finals and DNS), where he was holding back and still went 9.99 basic, but that is speculative. This list can reasonable be said to reflect athletes' basic maximum abilities so far this season.
Yes, I know, the season isn't over, and some guys look promising to improve, like Baker, Prescod, Coleman, and maybe Blake.
BUT so far this season, this list reflects EXACTLY what I opined years ago would represent a clean 100m top list. That is not to say that all athletes on the list are clean, because there is no way that one can reasonably make such a conclusion simply from their time not being 9.80 or better (look at Jason Livermore (JAM), who was never in that time zone, but who was using)---but at least none of this year's performances (basic OR raw) put any of those athletes into the 9.80-or-better pool, where doping has historically been assured.
I know lots of you guys are big on distance and what has happened to the times of the E. Africans over the years, but this sprint season looks pretty darn good.
I admit that this is a value judgment on my part, as this season's results validate what I said before, and validation is nice. But validation aside, I think that things are looking up in the 100m, where this year it's pretty much impossible to predict the winner with any reasonable degree of confidence.
Which is IMO how it should be. In a sport like the 100m, I have never believed in the ubermensch, in the athlete who is just naturally vastly better than the masses of people who have come before him or her, or who is just naturally vastly better than his or her contemporaries.
Great season so far, looking forward to DL final!