Me neither. I didn’t think that Greene would place because he looked nervous and tense throughout the weekend. I also thought Crawford and Powell would get things together for the final. 
No world or olympic record after all…
Are you nostradamus or something?
The question is will all of this fast round running result in injury? And what is up with the start times?
I felt that a fast track would be hard on the body and it looks like the Obk did his job by not trying to overperform. Mo may not be the greatest of all time but he must be top three. My question is how fast can the new blood go?
Shawn and Justin are young and their training must be good enough to get further improvement…or maybe this post is getting deep into things that should not be discussed.
Kruger … didn’t you see it coming? 
Look where technique served Gatlin and did in Crawford. Gatlin held his head down in his drive phase about 10m longer and Crawford stood up too soon and became a human parachute. Crawford was done right there. On a radar gun, I still think Crawford’s faster, but this ain’t a top speed contest.
Great final: 5 sub 10! Looking at the run more often I’d call it “technique over power”. Gatlin and Obikwelu look great - compare to Shawns wild pumping or Asafas head nodding.
On thing I learned: Asafa and Shawn can run fast with baseball caps, slowing down and playing around - when they try to give everything, fully focused (and obviously nervous and under pressure) - they don’t run one bit faster…but they have a bright future in front of them.
I did expect Obikwelu getting a medal, but not Gatlin to win. While the others were favourite or no favourites, played their psycho games he stayed virtually “unseen” and out of the background - bang - did his job. I really like that.
Somehow I can’t take big mouth greatest of all time bronze medal winners. On the other hand finishing in front of Shawn and Asafa Mo must feel kind of satisfied, though.
Running with baseball caps, fooling around, slowing down etc. … probably just methods to deal with pressure. I would still prefer dealing with pressure by focusing on the event itself. If you’re good enough you have 3 opportunities to work on that (1: st preliminaries, 2: nd preliminaries & semi final). Why throw the opportunities away with flamboyant crap, especially when you still have time to screw up and adjust in the first two races? How many Olympic winners have tried the flamboyant stuff … not too many I believe! How many have worked on rehearsing “how they should run in the final” during the first two (maybe also third) rounds (except going flat out)? Probably a great deal of champions? I also think Maurice acted like a true champion during all three runs … and delivering in the fourth. It just wasn’t enough to win. Will we see a cool Mr. Crawford in the 200m? We probably will!
I was a bit disapointed in Asafa Powell - it looked to me like he panicked - his form was off (looked like he was ‘chugging’). But he’s young and I think he was too nervous. I feel bad for the guy - it was his race to win and he choked a bit. Props to Gatlin for keeping his head cool throughout the whole event - a great champion.
Mo Greene surprised me - he looked like a beaten man, even in the in warmup. Got off to that great start and just barely got beaten out.
Does anyone know what happened to Zakari? (besides that he pulled up 
)
Bailey’s record stands for another 4 years!
If risking a DQ and wasting all your energy is how you have to deal with pressure, you’re fucked anyway!
Intimidation??? Who are they trying to intimidate- the crowd? Any competitor they could intimidate isn’t a factor in the first place!
After all this, people attribute the final results to “choking” under pressure.
Besides, it’s more than how you execute the heat and quarter, it’s how you ENTER the race in the first place. The muscle tone should be such that it will be at its best in the semi-final and final- (assuming you’re assured of getting there in the first place), not the heats. That comes down to the final taper.
Brilliant stuff charlie…I guess who set up the best final? Shawn lost the 100m final in my opinion.
It’s easy to act foolish when you THINK somebody is accompanying you. Now suddenly your friend has the gold medal while you’re out of the medals! If Crawford learned his lesson he will be much cooler in the 200m, otherwise he will find himself without a medal again. My bets on a stone faced less flamboyant Crawford in the 200m. Obi and Justin will be tough to beat thou.
Geez, imagine if the final had been today, look at the conditions, perfect wind, PB’s from 2/3 of the runners in the 100mh semis!
I agee with the basic content of the post (“playing around”, placings etc.)with one exception.
The Ali-esque self promotion of Mo, although not my style per se, appears to me to be harmless in light of things that he has done to promote the sport to an apathetic and clueless American public (and media). In my opinion this form of bravado serves to generate interest, drama and controversy in a way that sheer excellence on the track has failed to do in the last decade. Mo is undoubtedly aware of the multi-event achievements,longevity and hence greatness of athletes like Lewis, Johnson, etc.and has never given me the impression that is referring to anything outside of the 100m when proclaiming G.O.A.T. If in fact my perception is correct then it would be difficult to imagine someone who would surpass him as the greatest 100m man in history.
Is being the first and only bronze medalist to run a 9.87 a badge of shame or honor?
I like MO too, I don’t think he has anything to be ashamed of, that race could have gone either way. At about 70m I actually thought he was going to win.
On a side note, the CBC commentators (Brian Williams and Ron McLean) keep saying that Donovan Bailey had the fastest top speed of all time. I have heard them say on two occasions that Donovan Bailey ran 13m/s and 44km/hour. Where are they getting this stuff? How do they calculate those speeds and from which races?
And they could have recovered from their crazy rounds too! I feel sure that a WR was possible, given the general conditions there.
With a number like that it could only be from the finals in Atlanta. Though that was recorded by a radar gun and was 12.1 m/s. I think Bailey himself quotes his speed as 27 mph.
I’d have to look all this up - just quoting off the top of my head. 
Such complete bullshit made possible by there being NO splits in Atlanta to contradict this story. Those two guys couldn’t get a fact straight if it was tatooed on each other’s foreheads.
A radar gun max is higher than the average time over any 10m split and DBs fastest ever officially recorded 10m split is 11.9mps. Check the film of Atlanta. DB gradually passes the field at the end. If he was going 13mps he’d pull away by over 4 feet in every 10m.
Didn’t happen.
That 11.9 m/s was from Athens in 97 on the relay right?
Oh the quote by Bailey was in the Guiness Book of World Records (98 edition). “No one has ever run as fast as I have, running 27 mph.”
I knew I’d heard it somewhere - had to look it up. The CBC guys still got it wrong though, 27 mph is only 43.443 kmh
The fastest 10m split I can find is Ben’s 12.35m/s in Zurich 86:
http://www.charliefrancis.com/community/showthread.php?t=5117
This is quite interesting…
Have a look at what that kind of speed does to the field (including Carl Lewis, Calvin Smith, Linford Christie etc.)