Analyzing Usain Bolt's 19.19 Second 200m World Record

The Scientific Research Project at the 2009 IAAF World Athletics Championships has released the data for the 200m final and now we can break down Usain Bolts incredible 200m World Record of 19.19 seconds.

Click on the table below to get a closer look.

Let's pick out the key points for this race and see if we can compare them to his 100m splits.

1. Bolt's reaction time in this race is 0.133 seconds. This is much better than his 0.145 second 100m world record reaction time. However we have already discussed this in a previous post and know that Bolt can start fast too.
2. As expected Bolt runs the second 100m (from 100-200m ) faster than the first 100m. This is expected, as the start and getting up to speed takes time, while the second 100 meters can be run at close to maximum speed. Bolt's first 100m was run in 9.92 secs with the second hundred taking only 9.27 secs (a negative split). Interestingly, Michael Johnson ran the second 100 meters of his then World Record breaking 19.32 sec 200m race in 9.20 secs, which is faster than Bolt's second 100m in this race.
3. Bolt's maximum velocity during the 200 meter race occurs somewhere between the 50 and 100 meter mark. His average velocity over this 50m part of the race is 11.57 m/s (25.88 mph). In comparison his 100m maximum velocity was 12.27 m/s (27.45 mph). Once again this is to be expected, as the 200m athletes needs to have reserves to complete the race and cannot run at the same speed as in the 100m race.
4. Bolt slows down over each of the last two 50 meter splits as he begins to fatigue, covering each of the following 50 meter splits 2 tenths of a second slower. Watching the race, we can see that he is really straining to run fast, but he is still slowing down. It is expected that any athlete will slow down over the last 100 meters as the muscles tire, two hundered meters is a long way to go at full speed. We have mentioned that in this World Championships Bolt had already run four 100m races and three 200m heats before lining up for the 200m final. This has us excited at the prospect of seeing Bolt break this 19.19 second World Record, when he is fresh and has not run seven previous races.

All that is left to say is that we can expect Bolt to go faster in the 200 meter and 100 meter races in optimal conditions.

There is one record he does not hold yet and that is of the fastest 100m relay split. This record is held by his Jamaican team mate Asafa Powell in 8.70 secs. The anchor leg relay split is much faster than any of the other sprint splits, because the athletes have a flying start and are therefore able to reach top speed much sooner in the 100 meter distance. If Bolt anchors the 4X100m relay in Berlin this week, we expect that relay split record to be broken.

Comparing Usain Bolt's 100 meter and 200 meter World Records

Usain Bolt continues to amaze us with every race he runs. In destroying his own 200 meter world record from the Olympics, he has now set 5 world records in five Olympic or World Championship event finals in a row.

Watch video of the 200 meter race from the 2009 IAAF World Athletics Championships below. The final recorded time and the new record stands at 19.19 seconds, an incredible 0.11 seconds faster than his previous world record.



The 200 meter sprint record is usually a faster time than if you had to double the 100 meter record. This can be seen if we compare the more recent (since the use of electronic timers) progression of world records between the 2 events. As an example, when Donovan Baily held the world 100m record of 9.84 in 1996, the 200m record was held by Michael Johnson at 19.32 secs. This 200m time is faster than double the 100m record at the time.

In both the 100 and 200 meter races, the athletes start from the blocks and it usually takes them around 60 meters or more to reach maximum speed. In fact we saw from analysis of Usain Bolts 100m world record that he reached top speed at 65 meters in that race. Now in the 100m, the athletes maintain that speed for 40 or so more meters, while in the 200m they have 140m more to go and therefore maintain their top speed for longer. In fact the 200m race often has negative splits for the top athletes, meaning that they run the second 100 meters faster than the first 100 meters.

It is therefore interesting to note that if we double Usain Bolts 100m time (9.58) we get 19.16 secs, which in this case is faster than his new 200m world record of 19.19 secs. I am not trying to make the case that this 200 meter world record is not extraordinary, but why is this the case?
Watching the 200m race, he seems to be straining at the end, by this stage of the race his muscles must be burning, as he tries to maintain his maximum speed. He also said in an interview after the race that he felt tired and well he should after running all the 100m and 200m heats and finals. It is possible that this fatigue meant he could not run the 200m as fast as he possibly can. Seldom has the 100m and 200m world records been held by the same athlete or even broken by the same athlete at the same event and so this may be a factor in his 200m time.

Examining the splits and his maximum velocity to compare his 200m to his 100m world records, will give us more insight into what we can expect from Bolt in the future. From this past records history we can speculate that his 200m record is going to be smashed again soon and the 19.0 second barrier is not out of the question.

It is fantastic watching such an incredible athlete run and we hope to learn as much as possible about his biomechanics by watching and analyzing the video footage.

Biomechanical Analysis of Usain Bolts 9.58 sec World Record

At the IAAF World Championships in Berlin, the German IAAF Member Federation, DLV, in cooperation with the IAAF is carrying out a major Biomechanics Project.

The project presented the reaction times and splits for all the finalists from the 100 metersemifinals and the final at the 2009 IAAF World Championships in Berlin.
We thought we would present them here and try to predict just how fast Usain Bolt can run.

This table gives us some real insight into Bolt's race. Lets take a look at some crucial points in the race. You can click on the table to see the details.

1. Of the 8 finalists Bolt has the 3rd slowest reaction time to the gun, at 0.146 seconds. Both Asafa Powell with 0.134 secs and Tyson Gay with 0.144 secs react faster.
2. By the 20 meter mark though Bolt has caught up all this time and gone ahead of Powell by 0.03 secs.
3. From the 20 meter mark on, Bolt is away and getting further away over each 20 meter interval. Although we can also see that Tyson Gay is able to hang pretty close between 20 and 80 meters.
4. Bolt reaches his top speed of 12.27 m/s or 27.45 miles per hour at the 65 meter mark. This can be seen in the second graph presented by the IAAF Biomechanics Research paper.
5. From 80 to 100 meters Bolt actually begins to slow down. We can see that his time for the last 20 meters is 0.05 seconds slower than his fastest 20 meter split of 1.61 seconds. We also know that he reached his maximum speed at 65 meters and everything after that was a little slower.
6. One last thing to note is that in this race there is a tail wind of 0.9 m/s. This is legal but it does give the athletes a slight advantage as it pushes them along.

To determine how fast we think he can run, lets look back at the Beijing Olympics and remember how analysis of that race suggested that if Bolt had maintained his speed through the last 20 meters and did not begin celebrations, he could possibly have run the 100 meters in 9.55 seconds.

His current world mark is pretty close to that already, so where can he improve to make up the time. So here are some key factors that are critical to determine how much faster he can go.

1. Firstly look at the table again and at Bolt's reaction time (RT) for his semi-final. In this race he gets out in 0.135 seconds as against the 0.146 seconds in the final. We also see that he completes the first 20 meters in the same time in both the semis and final, while he definitely seemed to be cruising in the semi-final. It has also been suggested that Bolt actually covered the first 20 meters in Beijing faster than he did in Berlin. This is up for debate though, as if you remember from our post on that study, the video analysis was done using broadcast footage where the camera setup was not optimal. In any case, Bolt can definitely get out of the blocks faster and should be able to cover that first 20 meters faster than he did in Berlin.
2. The prediction from the Beijing Olympics was based on the suggestion that Bolt could maintain his speed at 80 meters through to the end of the race. In Berlin however, he is not able to do this and slows down a little over the last 20 meters. We also notice that all the athletes in the final ran slower over the last 20 meters, than in the split between 60-80 meters (which was the fastest for all of them). Therefore it may be impossible for a 100 meter athlete to maintain their speed over the last 20 meters and the Beijing prediction may have been optimistic in this regard.
3. In the last 10 meters in Berlin, Bolt takes a look out of the corner of his eye to check on Gay. We don't believe this could have caused too much of a slow down. In fact if we look at his average velocity at the 90m and the 100m mark from the research, we can see that he does not slow down between those 2 points. But lets assume he could have been 1 or 2 hundredths of a second faster if he had not checked.
4. The 0.9 m/s tail wind in the final in Berlin will definitely have helped Bolt. A tail wind of up to 2.0 m/s is considered legal for a record to stand. Therefore there is an advantage to be gained with the right conditions.

Finally we have some sort of answer. We think Bolt can definitely run faster. If he improves his reaction time and runs hard through the finish in the right conditions, we have no doubt a new world record will be set.
I am sure we would all love to see an athlete challenge the 9.50 second barrier and Bolt may have it in him to do just that. We look forward to watching it all.

Can Usain Bolt Run Any Faster?

In a recent post we asked the question: How fast can Usain Bolt Run? In this post we introduced you to a study that suggested he could have run the 100 meters at the 2008 Beijing Olympics in less than 9.6 seconds.

At the 2009 IAAF World Athletics Championships, today he proved just that, shattering his own World Record by running the race in 9.58 seconds. Even then he still had time to take a look out of the corner of his eye at Tyson Gay, his closest competitor, who ran an impressive 9.71 seconds

If you missed this amazing race, take a look at the video below.



Unbelievable! The only question left is how much faster can he go? Bolt himself believes that he can run the 100 in 9.4 seconds. To us this seems a bit out of reach, although we believe he will go faster than 9.58.

We would love to hear what you think.

How Fast can Usain Bolt Run?

The IAAF World Championships begins in less than a month and all eyes will be on the 100m and 200m world record holder, Usain Bolt from Jamaica. We all remember the Beijing Olympics in 2008, when Bolt ran the 100m in 9.69 seconds, throwing out his arms and pumping his chest before crossing the line. There has been a lot of speculation about how fast he could have run with some suggesting a time of 9.55 seconds http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/trackandfield/news/story?id=3583692 .

The publishers of the study above, made use of video analysis to estimate this potential world record time. In fact they used video from Beijing Olympics broadcast productions from NBC, BBC and NRK (a Norwegian Channel). If you are a regular reader of our posts you will already know about many of the techniques they used to analyze the video. Lets look at how they did it.

When you or I setup to capture video of a sporting performance, we know how important the position of the camera is. In this case however the researchers did not have access to the stadium and athletes in Beijing and therefore had to make use of broadcast footage. In most cases this footage includes moving cameras and camera angles that are not always conducive to accurate measurement.

The publishers of the article used basic physics to estimate the possible finish time for Usain Bolt had he not celebrated 20 meters before crossing the line. The basic equations are well known:
Velocity (speed) = Distance/Time
Acceleration = Velocity/Time

So if we can find the distance Bolt covered and the time he took to cover that distance we would have his velocity or speed. We could measure that speed, from the video footage, over numerous intervals to determine how it is changing. Likewise, if we know his velocity (speed) we can measure his acceleration and how it changes over the same intervals.
The publishers of the study estimated Bolts speed and acceleration at the interval before he started to celebrate. At this point his speed and acceleration slow. To determine the predicted finishing time, the researchers assumed that Bolts acceleration could be maintained over the last 20 meters of the race, had he not celebrated. In this way they were able to predict a finishing time of 9.55 seconds.

You probably want to know how they were able to determine distance covered and the time it took. This information was all obtained from the broadcast video. The video used was from NBC and can be found at http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/share.html?videoid=0824_HD_ATB_AU_CE552 . Below is similar video of the race :


In the video you will see the camera rail running from the left to the right at the bottom of the image. This camera rail has bolts spaced evenly along it. By knowing the distance between the bolts on the track and that the start line is at 0 meters and the finish line at 100 meters, we can determine Usain Bolts position relative to the rail bolts at numerous intervals.

You will also see the stadium time clock and the broadcast time clock in the video. These clocks can be used to determine the time at which Bolt reached each interval.
We now have all the information we need. Distance covered and the time it took. From this we can determine his speed and acceleration at all intervals and predict his finishing time had he not begun his celebrations early.

We would like to thank the study authors H. K. Eriksen, J. R. Kristiansen, Ø. Langangen and I. K. Wehus for doing this fun study and we look forward to seeing whether Usain Bolt can get anywhere close to this predicted World record at the IAAF World Championships in Berlin in August.

Please let us know if you want more details on this study or just want to leave a comment. We love to hear from you.