American Italian Jacobs, who speaks better Italian than English, was initially scheduled for last Thursday’s Diamond League in Rome, but he withdrew early this month due to an injury. He has also unsubscribed for the meeting in Oslo next week. And that while the World Athletics Championships in Eugene in the US, in the second half of July, are getting closer and closer. He is convinced that he can be top fit again there.
Without Jacobs, who only ran 100 meters in Savona twice this spring (9.99 and 10.04), the sprint battle in Rome did not really want to ignite. Fred Kerley, who grabbed silver in Tokyo, was well ahead of his competitors with 9.92. Runner-up and compatriot Kyree King had to be satisfied with 10.14.
Kerley has a unique talent: he can accelerate to the finish. Where most reach their top speed at about ten to twenty meters before the finish line and then drop back slightly in the last part due to fatigue, the 27-year-old American continues to steam.
Usain Bolt, who still holds the world record with 9.58, couldn’t. He went a little slower than before in the final meters of his best races. But the Jamaican touched 44.72 kilometers per hour during his world record race, while Kerley crossed the line in Rome at 42 kilometers per hour. Insufficient for a really fast time.
Not as sharp as Bolt
That stands out anyway. The 100-meter times in international competitions are not yet so sharp this season and last that they approach those from Bolt’s reign, which ended in 2017.
It is different with women. Of course, the world record of Florence Griffith of 10.49 has been set since 1988, but last summer the Jamaican Elaine Thompson-Herah came very close with 10.54. And this year in April her compatriot Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce sprinted to the thirteenth time ever in Nairobi in high altitude: 10.67.
The fast times are partly due to the footwear of the sprinters. In recent years, running shoes with a carbon plate in the sole have already helped long and medium distance runners to higher speeds. The ‘carbon’ sole acts like a spring in the shoe.
foam rubber
The 100-meter runners benefit from this technique and from another invention: a type of foam rubber that is also incorporated in the sole. This foam absorbs the energy that is released when the foot is put down and gives a little push during the take-off. It should save a tenth of a second on the 100-meter time and so the men also run with it.
Bolt complained about the miracle slippers in the run-up to the Tokyo Games. †Weird and unfair‘ he called them. Weird and unfair. He would easily break his own world record if he wore the spikes too, he said. But a year after his complaint about the modern spikes, Bolt can conclude that the vacuum created after his retirement has still not been filled.