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.

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.