Runs at 10.00 flat, at 12.30 he has lunch, goes home for a sleep at 4.00 flat
Not going to happen…why would a guy in his prime go race against a bunch of donkeys who shouldn’t even be mentioned in the same breath. Anyways from my readings of the article the playesr would race each other and he would come and race in some invitational. However, I doubt a detour to Australia would not be in his plans leading into the CWG and if he doesn’t run in the CWG appear at something like this would not help his profile…
Perhaps not, but $1m - even Aussie $1m, will certainly help his bank balance.
He has already stated he will not compete at the Com Games, but as the circuit traditionally wraps up in September in South-East Asia - and Bolt has been a party to that himself as a season-ending payday - it would take little for him to drop down the same time-zone to have a gallop in the Sydney springtime sun…
Who he races against is of no consequence, pretty much as has been the case whenever he has raced over the last couple of years - be they footballers or elite fellow sprint specialists. He is on a platform of his own.
I actually think this might be good for track and field. Athletics doesn’t get much credit. Usain Bolt’s “Is he football fast?” video is pretty funny, but not that far fetched in terms of what people think. It would show people just how much faster he is than really fast poeple from another sport.
I’d rather see Rouge-Serrett or another domestic athlete (Sally maybe) race the footballers. Bolt being 15m ahead of these guys isn’t going to mean anything to any one. Domestic athletes however may be able to put the local sport into a bit more perspective.
Who is running this event anyway and who is flipping the bill?
Definitely wanna see it happen for the lolz.
I agree with you there! Aaron and Matt Davis would turn the footballers inside out! You don’t need internationals to prove that running under 11 secs is fast let alone under 10!! It’s just the inflated opinion we have of our footballers that ONLY Bolt could be good enough to race them. Don’t get me wrong…some of these footballers are very talented but i doubt many could get legitimate under 11 sec electric.If we didn’t loose our talented to high playing team sports i believe Australia would have a lot more decent sprinters. But…money talks!
I spoke to Ricky Simms, Bolt’s European track agent and while he was waiting to speak to Glen Mills and wouldn’t go on the record until then, he told me enough to assure me that Bolt is intending to come to Australia in September. He wants to come to Oz primarily to have a holiday, but he also has pressure from two sponsors in Oz - Puma and Gatorade.
That of course doesn’t mean he’ll race in Oz, but apparently so far as anyone knows right now he is not against the idea.
The race may not even be against Footballers. It would depend on what Bolt and his advisors (Coach Mills especially I assume) want to do and it all presumes he will have recovered from his current ankle ailment and will be OK to sprint in mid-September.
I have also spoken to the meet director, Hayden KNowles, who assured me he has already booked the Sydney Olympic track and has paid a lot of bills up front. He is very inspired and highly motivated to put on a very different, potentially highly entertaining meet in which coaches and champions of the past will be honoured. A number of Aussie elites who will be in Oz in the final stage of preparation before flying to Delhi in early October for the Com Games (the athletics program runs Oct 6-14) are keen to compete, although indications are that by preference and by some degree of necessity, the fields for most events will be small.
Aths Australia - the national federation in Oz - will meet in Sydney this Friday to confirm arrangements with Knowles, who is strength and conditioning coach/trainer for world discus champion Dani Samuels and world boxing champions Danny Green and Vic Darchinyan among others.
Knowles is also a long-time S&C coach for the NRL Parramatta Eels football team and is well liked. His vision includes using many big-name rugby league players to honour Australia’s track and field athletes. It’s going to be a bloody love-in. LOL.
I also spoke to S&C coach for the Gold Coast Titans - Ronny Palmer (a keen track fan who has attended the seminars by Steven Francis) - who is totally up front about the chances of any footballers getting anywhere near Bolt. I suggested maybe they should get Bolt to run carrying a football. Palmer quipped “He could carry a lead football and still win”.
But Palmer added that rugby league players should be respected for the speed they do have, the best of them would dip just under 5sec for 40m from a standing start in spikes fully auto timed. He said they train play for 80minutes, they train for wrestling, all manner of cross-training. So sprinting is obviously going to suffer and they train primarily to run only 40m. “NRL are probably the fittest players on earth because it is the most demanding sport” Palmer said.
If and when they go to Oz we will have a list of questions for you Aussies to ask Glen 
Many of these so called standing 40m tests these footballers do are not true 40m tests. That is they usually start 30cm or 50cm behind a timing gate that is set off when the athlete breaks the beam set at 0m. This in effect would add 0.30 - 0.60s off the time before even adding reaction. I doubt there would be very many if any who would go under 5s for 40m fully electric. Lets keep in mind that by the time you add a reaction to a gun there would probbaly be none (standing or not). If we say it takes around a minimum 10m/s + to break 11s. Someone like Sally would at her best go 5.15-5.25s for her first 40m fully electric which would be competitive against most of them (assumming her usual reaction of 0.14). Now if Bolt goes 4.60 with reaction to a gun and around 4.45s without and we did have one of these footballers going sub 5.00s (which I highly doubt this from a gun) Bolt would be from 4.5-5m in front at 40m. In 100m terms somone going sub 5.00s for the 1st 40m is probably capable of a 10-6-10.8s 100m. (PS…No disrepect to Mr Palmer as I am not sure of his experience with other sports but thats a big call that they are the fittest players on earth). Come to think of it maybe Bolt should race these footballers, so once and for all we can explain in a practical sense just how far off the mark they would be…and please throw in some locals just so they get some respect to…
Christian Blum, one of Germany’s best sprinters (6.56, 10.26 and 20.85), lost a 30m sprint against a German football/soccer player running on grass and in soccer shoes. A lot of things can happen when a sprinter is made to run under unfamiliar circumstances and the race distance is short enough.
Firstly: Fitness is specific to the event/sport you play. Bolt would have trouble getting up time and again after being smashed in tackles, jogging backwards, wrestling an opponent to the ground etc.
Second: IF - and it’s a big question mark - Bolt sprints against any footballers in Oz he will be wearing spikes and they will all race on a synthetic track over 100 metres. He will not be wearing footie boots.
My mail is that Fabrice Lapierre, JOhn Steffensen, Dani Samuels and some other very good Aussies have committed to this Sept 15 meet. Don’t know who the heck they’ll compete against - maybe more footballers LOL.
If I remember correctly…he was 18…and the start was…standing with a voice signal…I think I saw a footage.
Makes my heart grow fonder to train harder.
I give myself a shout too, BUT at the finish line of a 100m, its apples & oranges. Its a country mile in terms of distance.
He was 19 and had run 60m in 6.59s two days earlier, but yes, he mainly lost because of a delayed reaction to the unfamiliar start signal.
Off Topic…but as KitKat mentioned fitness is sport specific. This is simply unbelievable…
John Isner and Nicolas Mahut locked at 59-59 in epic Wimbledon marathon
From correspondents in London, England
June 24, 2010 Play has been suspended in the longest tennis match ever played as France’s Nicolas Mahut and American John Isner came off court at 59-59 in the final set at Wimbledon.
“Nothing like this will ever happen again, ever,” said an exhausted Isner.
“I don’t know what to say.”
Isner had match point at 59-58, but Mahut fired down an ace to take it back to deuce, before going on to win the game.
At 59-59 and 9:10pm (0610 EST) with the light fading fast, match officials tried to suspend play, though Isner wanted to carry on.
The decision was finally made to suspend play exactly 10 hours after the first serve of the day was struck.
Spectators yelled “We want more” on Court 18.
“Ladies and gentlemen, due to darkness, play is suspended,” the umpire announced.
A drained Mahut said: “We played for too long, I don’t know how many hours we played.”
Tennis fans packed out the 782-capacity show court, with people lining the roof of the Wimbledon broadcasting centre several deep and fans outside peering through gaps to catch a glimpse of the epic match.
The previous record of six hours and 33 minutes was set at the 2004 French Open, when Fabrice Santoro beat fellow Frenchman Arnaud Clement 6-4, 6-3, 6-7, 3-6, 16-14.
“It is reasonable to say that it is the longest official tennis match in history,” International Tennis Federation spokesman Nick Imison told AFP, adding that it was certainly the longest in the Open Era records.
“There are not any records to suggest otherwise.”
The record number of games in match - previously 112 in singles and 122 set in a doubles match - was also shattered, as was the figure for the most aces served by one player in a match since records began.
Defending men’s singles champion Roger Federer thought he had seen just about everything the sport had to offer in a career which has brought him a record 16 grand slam titles.
But the six-time Wimbledon champion admitted he was stunned by the epic nature of the clash.
“This is beyond anything I’ve ever seen. It’s absolutely amazing,” Federer said.
“I have almost no words anymore watching this.
“I don’t know how their bodies must be feeling. This is incredible tennis. Someone has to lose but in this match both will be winners.
“I love this. I know they’re maybe not loving this, but I guess this is unheard of in our game.
“It’s so impressive to see. When I was watching this I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. It was too much.”
The encounter certainly put the exploits of Federer comfortably in the shade.
Federer edged into the third round with a 6-3 6-7 (4/7) 6-4 7-6 (7/5) win over Serbian qualifier Ilija Bozoljac.
Federer needed to reassert his authority at the All England Club after he was forced to come back from two sets down and break to save the match in his first round clash win over Colombian Alejandro Falla.
But the Swiss did just enough to see off the unheralded Bozoljac, ranked No.152 in the world, and the air of invincibility that usually surrounds the world No.2 was absent.
Last year’s beaten finalist Andy Roddick also made it through to the third round.
No.5 seed Roddick came back from a set down to beat France’s Michael Llodra in four sets.
The three-time Wimbledon finalist was making his first appearance on Centre Court since his epic 16-14 last set defeat to Federer in last year’s final.
The American No.1 beat Llodra 4-6 6-4 6-1 7-6 (7/2).
“That was as tough of a second round as there is in this tournament right now,” Roddick said.
“He was playing flawless tennis. He played an almost perfect first set.
“It took some of my best stuff to get through that. I thought I played really well. I think I had to.”
Meanwhile, Serbian No.3 seed Novak Djokovic beat Taylor Dent of the United States 7-6 (7/5) 6-1 6-4.
Elsewhere in the men’s draw, seeds Tomas Berdych, Jurgen Melzer, Gael Monfils, Feliciano Lopez, Albert Montanes, Philipp Kohlschreiber and Victor Hanescu went through.
Agence France-Presse
That would depend on how you measure the fitness component (anaerobic v aerobic). The earlier comments indicate that NRL players need to have diverse fitness components, speed, strength, aerobic capacity etc! Due to the lack of development in one specific fitness component NRL players wouldn’t be trained to score particular high in one specific fitness component therefore you would envisage that NRL score moderately across a wide range of fitness components.
Tennis is $hit.
yup… Wish I had his job.
I know, it’s like a Ferrari racing a Honda. We all know who would win, but people will still pay and watch because it’s “entertainment.”
On a side note, I wish they would just turn Bolt lose and just let him put it to the floor T Gay style. Who knows, he may get an off the track career ending injury and we may never get to see how fast he can go. That almost happened with his BMW accident.
Seems to me that his hole persona is to milk his career for all that it’s worth then mabe in the end give it 100%.