Maintaining that top speed for as long as possible is a primary focus of training for the 100 m.

Runners usually reach their top speed just past the halfway point of the race and progressively decelerate to the finish. Justin Gatlin commented, 'Just a flinch or a leg cramp could cost you a year's worth of work.' The rule had a dramatic impact at the 2011 World Championships, when current world record holder Usain Bolt was disqualified. This proposal was met with objections when first raised in 2005, on the grounds that it would not leave any room for innocent mistakes. To avoid such abuse and to improve spectator enjoyment, the IAAF implemented a further change in the 2010 season – a false starting athlete now receives immediate disqualification. This rule led to some sprinters deliberately false-starting to gain a psychological advantage: an individual with a slower reaction time might false-start, forcing the faster starters to wait and be sure of hearing the gun for the subsequent start, thereby losing some of their advantage. The next iteration of the rule, introduced in February 2003, meant that one false start was allowed among the field, but anyone responsible for a subsequent false start was disqualified. However, this rule allowed some major races to be restarted so many times that the sprinters started to lose focus. The 0.2-second interval accounts for the sum of the time it takes for the sound of the starter's pistol to reach the runners' ears, and the time they take to react to it.įor many years a sprinter was disqualified if responsible for two false starts individually. A reaction time less than 0.1 s is considered a false start.

Īt high level meets, the time between the gun and first kick against the starting block is measured electronically, via sensors built in the gun and the blocks. Male sprinters await the starter's instructionsĪt the start, some athletes play psychological games such as trying to be last to the starting blocks. The current men's world record is 9.58 seconds, set by Jamaica's Usain Bolt in 2009, while the women's world record is 10.49 seconds set by American Florence Griffith-Joyner in 1988. The 10-second barrier has historically been a barometer of fast men's performances, while the best female sprinters take eleven seconds or less to complete the race. Their speed then slows towards the finish line. Sprinters typically reach top speed after somewhere between 50 and 60 m. A race-official then fires the starter's pistol to signal the race beginning and the sprinters stride forwards from the blocks. The following instruction, to adopt the 'set' position, allows them to adopt a more efficient starting posture and isometrically preload their muscles: this will help them to start faster. The runners move to the starting blocks when they hear the 'on your marks' instruction. There are three instructions given to the runners immediately before and at the beginning of the race: 'on your marks,' 'set,' and the firing of the starter's pistol. On an outdoor 400-metre running track, the 100 m is held on the home straight, with the start usually being set on an extension to make it a straight-line race. Fred Kerley and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce are the reigning world champions Marcell Jacobs and Elaine Thompson-Herah are the men's and women's Olympic champions. The reigning 100 m Olympic or world champion is often named 'the fastest man or woman in the world'. Women's 100 m Final – 2015 World Championships, won by Jamaican sprinter Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce.

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