New World Record
Olympic champion Justin Gatlin broke the 100-meter world record Friday with a time of 9.76 seconds at the Qatar Grand Prix. The previous mark was 9.77 seconds set by Jamaica's Asafa Powell on June 14, 2005, in Athens, Greece. Gatlin's previous best was 9.85 seconds. Click on the picture to read the article.
5 comments:
The official time was 9.766 and so the IAAF are rounding it up to 9.77. He is now the co-record holder, but not for long.
http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/trackandfield/news/story?id=2447985
Wow, that sucks for him right now, because honestly, there is a good chance that he won't run a faster time this year, leaving his 9.77 as his fastest, and the "co-record" time. He's a great talent and an amazing athlete, but there's a reason that nobody has run 9.7 twice: it's damn fast! I bet he will get 9.79 at least this year, giving him that distinction, but 9.76? I don't know. We'll see.
On the subject, I don't understand why the IAAF still rounds times in the sprints (100 & 200 mainly, 400 too though) to only 2 decimal places. His time being an "official" 9.766 proves they have timing systems that accurate. It also proves that this accuracy matters. I also believe that the races in which records are going to be broken, large events such as the venue he "tied" the record in, all have this accurate of timing systems, and thus the results should be rounded to 3 decimal places. Not in the mile, certainly not in the 10,000, but in the events when thousanths of seconds count (which, now we see do).
Good catch, and thanks for the link. It's not a hyperlink (one you can click on) I think because Blogger doesn't let unregistered users post them, so you'll have to copy/paste it into your browser address bar, but a worth the "hassle". Thanks Matt.
I am not as advanced as you in computers, I would have made it a hyperlink if I knew how. If they started going to 3 decimal places that would be very smart, but the downside to that is at the high school level they would have to start doing it to. I don't think they will because of the hassle it would create. See you tomorrow.
- Matt
You are not able to control whether or not a link you post becomes a hyperlink, it's all on Blogger's end, so you don't have to chalk this one up to inexperience.
You're point about having to change high school timing systems is good, but when have you seen a high schooler chasing a world record? We're talking about the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF), not the Oregon School Activities Association (OSAA), so I don't think that there would be a need on the high school level to change the timing systems, just on the national level.
See you tonight!
And by national I meant international...
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