Ben Johnson 9.58 In Perfect Race

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SPECULATION ABOUT THE DREAM 100M RACE FROM DAILY TELEGRAPH IN SYDNEY, OZ. kk :eek:

By MIKE HURST

IRRESPECTIVE of the outcome of a showdown between joint world recordholders Asafa Powell and Justin Gatlin, statistics show Ben Johnson would win the ultimate 100 metres race.

In the perfect race, on today’s harder more contractile tracks, with the maximum allowable tailwind of two metres per second the stats give Big Ben the win in 9.58sec!

Canadian Johnson ran a then world record 9.79, with one hand in the air for the last 10m or so to win his showdown with American superstar Carl Lewis at the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games.

A day later Johnson returned a test positive.

Johnson’s time was wiped from the record book but not from the memory of current-day champions and coaches.

How fast can a man run? What are the limits of human performance? Who would win the ultimate 100 metres race?

We may find some of the answers when Jamaica’s Commonwealth champion Powell and US Olympic and world champion Gatlin go head-to-head in London on July 28 and probably beforehand, perhaps on July 3 in sunny Athens.

Powell lowered the record to 9.77 last year in Athens. Gatlin responded by equalling the time in Doha last month.

In Gateshead, England, yesterday Powell remarkably ran another 9.77, dropping his arms a couple of strides before the finish otherwise he may have had the record to himself with a time of around 9.75.

But five men have now run under 9.80sec. They include Sydney Olympic champion Maurice Greene (9.79) and Tim Montgomery (9.78), as well as Johnson, Powell and Gatlin.

Carl Lewis, whom many consider the greatest 100m competitor in history, would not even make the final (top eight) of a 100m dream dash because it would take 9.85sec to qualify.

King Carl’s best was only'' 9.86 and he gets no benefit of the doubt about performing on new age hard tracks because his personal best, a world record at the time, came in Tokyo in 1991 on the new generation magic carpets’’.

The fantasy finalists could include: Bruny Surin, Donovan Bailey, Olusoji Fasuba, Johnson, Powell, Gatlin, Montgomery and Greene.

Factoring in best known marks for reaction time, acceleration (0-30m), maximum speed 1 (30-60m), maximum speed 2 (60-80m) and speed maintenance (80-100m) protocols established by East German professors Gundlack and Hess produce a startling theoretical victory to Johnson.

Information was compiled by Pierre-Jean Vazel, a French federation statistician who also coaches Olusoji Fasuba, the new African recordholder at 9.85.

Johnson’s figures are surreal: based on his best reaction time of 0.100sec recorded in starting Canada’s relay at the 1984 LA Olympics (his RT in Seoul was only 0.132sec), the almost uniform improvements in the first 30m on the new harder tracks, the maximum velocity of 12.35mps he achieved in Zurich in 1986, and adjusted for a maximum allowable 2m/sec tailwind (he had a 1.3m/s headwind in Zurich), Johnson’s potential 100m best was 9.578sec.

Greene (9.75), Powell (9.75) and Gatlin (9.76) would fight out the placings, but what statistics cannot factor in are emotional responses to pressure. To date Powell has performed poorly in the majors and when lined up against men as fast or faster than him to 60m.

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So they’re saying Johnson would win by .17 over Gatlin/Powell/Greene??? That seems like alot. Must be giving a big factor to the track surface. I guess the Zurich top speed is a killer too. The “my record will stand for 50 years” comment rings true here.

They should do that for the women too. FloJo 10.49 in 0.0m/s. GAME OVER! :slight_smile:

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one has to think of the impact that trace in 88 had on the sport and the generation of coaches and athletes and even general public that witnessed it.

for many of the non track fans i speak with it is a moment they all remember to this day and no matter what happens Ben will always be regarded as the best, one of my friends a silver medalists at boxing in 88 always believed that it was the greatest moment in sport he has, or will ever witness.

One has to wonder just what time he could have ran in todays climate.

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Fredrick’s and Boldon get shafted because they ran their 9.86’s into head winds -.4 for both I believe?

Anyhow I’m sure there are a thousand ways to calculate in or take out a few hundreths in these conversions, but anyhow here is my fantasy 100m, not that anyone cares.

Lane 1 - Obadele Thompson 9.87 (9.69 +5.7)
Lane 2 - Ato Bolden
Lane 3 - Bob Hayes (10.06 on what many wouldnt use as a driveway today)
Lane 4 - Ben Johnson
Lane 5 - Asafa Powell
Lane 6 - Justin Gatlin
Lane 7 - Marian Woronin (10.00)
Lane 8 - Donald Lippincott (10.6h the Godfather himself)

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Have to make it a 9 lane race and inc the immortal Jesse Owens.

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why Woronin? (go Borzov instead). Incidentally I spoke with a guy last week who was recently in the old USSR and caught up with Borzov whom he said weighs around 130kg of flab, quite a shock if true and have no reason to disbelieve this guy who was himself a gold medallist in Munich for USSR

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I find it interesting that you don’t have more of the past record holders:

Tim 9.78
Mo 9.79
Carl 9.86 (9.76 +wind)
My personal favorite: Cason (two windy sub 9.78)

:slight_smile:

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Oh and you gotta have the smoothest sprinter of the bunch in Owens!!!

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Damn what about linford christie and d chambers?

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Why the plural forms? Both these statements refer to the olympic final. You are making it sound like this is a regularly recurring phenomenon. It seems Powell is not judged by what he have or haven’t done, but by what Gatlin have done.

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Mo in Edmonton ran 60s in 6"33 with a head wind of -0.2
with a RT of 0"1 and without injury now we woult talk about a time of 9"70!
with a wind of 2 m/s (+2.2) Mo could run in 9"58-9"59

if ben ran last 12 m he could ran in 9"76
with a perfect RT and 2 m/s (+0.7-0.8) he could run in 9"68-9"69 (i think a sprinter can reach is MaxV only without a MaxAccel)
so: what is the gain in time with new (fastest) track?

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If you include Owens, you would have to include Bob Hayes!

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Fastest I could find for Cason was 9.79 at +4.5 and +5.3 at Eugene.

And if you want him you minds well put in Churandy Martina the El Paso kid you ran the 9.76 in gail force winds of +6.1 this year then got lit up by X-man at ncaa’s along with most of the heat.

I just put Thompson in because he has the fastest time no holds bar.

Borzov, I believe has a fastest time of 10.07 and I blame his success inpart for the fact that people jump off house roofs for depth jumps (perhaps slight overdramatization, but not much) therefore I leave him off, hey its just my thoughts not a scientific study like the first post.

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I also think Ben could’ve run 9.75/9.76 without slowing in the last 15m not the 9.72/9.73 that many think. Ben’s best 80-100m was 1.73 (0.86 & 0.87 from Roma '87). Ben split 8.02 in Seoul for 80m en-route, 8.02 + 1.73 = 9.75. He might have even run slower for the effort he put from 40-70m was greater than that of Roma (0.84, 0.83 & 0.84 for Ben 40-50m, 50-60m & 60-70m in Seoul)

The advantage that each hardness of track has over another is smaller than people think. I think the average track hardness is 23, with the fastest EVER tracks being Tokyo & Atlanta (11 & 13 hardnesses for them respectively) which I don’t know how they were recognised by the IAAF. Each hardness represents about 0.005 in time so someone running 9.85 on a 23 hardness track would run 9.80 on a 13 hardness track - I am probably exaggerating and the difference is only like 0.002 or 0.003

I know that Seoul track was 28 hardness, so using the 0.002 logic, if Ben’s 9.79 easing down is worth 9.75/9.76 w/o easing-up, Ben runs 9.72/9.73 on Tokyo track (11) all-out in '88. I’ll give Ben 0.03-0.05 for ALL modern benefits that have been gained from 1988 to 2006 - 9.67-9.70 on Tokyo track today, or 9.71-9.74 on ‘average mondo’ track of today

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[QUOTE=vabo74]Mo in Edmonton ran 60s in 6"33 with a head wind of -0.2[QUOTE]

Where did you get the number of 6.33 to 60m? There were no official splits provided for 2001 WC, as they did not have the equipment set up for this race.

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[QUOTE=NumberTwo][QUOTE=vabo74]Mo in Edmonton ran 60s in 6"33 with a head wind of -0.2

Where did you get the number of 6.33 to 60m? There were no official splits provided for 2001 WC, as they did not have the equipment set up for this race.

all the splits for edmonton have been taken from tape and they are all unreal.

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[QUOTE=NumberTwo][QUOTE=vabo74]Mo in Edmonton ran 60s in 6"33 with a head wind of -0.2

Where did you get the number of 6.33 to 60m? There were no official splits provided for 2001 WC, as they did not have the equipment set up for this race.

i remember some split posted in this site

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they are unreal but Mo in Edmonton was perfect
He ran 9"82 without last 25 m (9 steps)
I think he lost 0"06-0"07 in these 9 steps without a leg

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yes the edmonton race is absolutely insane. anyways i just got done having some fun with this site: http://myweb.lmu.edu/jmureika/track/wind/index.html

I set up the ultimate showdown in Athens (wind 2.0 m/s):

  1. Maurice Greene (USA): 9.67 (.130 RT)
  2. Ben Johnson (CAN): 9.73 (.109 RT)
  3. Asafa Powell (JAM): 9.74 (.145 RT)
  4. Ato Bolden (TRI): 9.76 (.140 RT)
  5. Frank Fredericks (NAM): 9.76 (.140 RT)
  6. Justin Gatlin (USA): 9.76 (.164 RT)
  7. Tim Montgomery (USA): 9.78 (.109 RT)
  8. Donovan Bailey (CAN): 9.79 (.174 RT)

Summary:
Bailey’s slow reaction time takes him out of contention immiediately, and Montgomery’s reaction is the only thing saving him from last place. Bolden, Fredericks, and Gatlin tie for 4th). Powell gets the edge on Gatlin from his reaction time, though their time over 100m is actually identical. Johnson’s superior time out of the blocks and over the 100m puts him in second. Greene simply wins.

Data:
I only took info from races that i had wind, RT, and times for. Frankie and Ato are exceptions, as i don’t have RTs for them. I gave them fairly generics RTs (i think?) , though it would be much better if I could get splits and their real reaction times. It would also be better if I could get more RTs for Bailey, since i don’t think he always reacted as slow as he did in the Olympic final. Temperature and track isn’t accounted for. Greene recieved the biggest bonus when his time were adjusted because a) his reaction time was slower than normal and b) he had the slowest tailwind of all the WR races i adjusted. Johnson’s tailwind gave him more time as did taking 2 hundredths off for his RT.

What Ifs:
Regarding Ben Johnson and Maurice Greene there are a host of what ifs. How fast could Greene have gone in Edmonton barring injury? How fast could Johnson have gone if he hadn’t completely dominated his field? I think it’s safe to say Greene’s adjusted time could be up to .03 faster and Ben’s could be up to .09 faster (up to .04 for going faster in Seoul, and up to .05 for faster tracks). This puts Green’s adjusted time at 9.64-9.67 and Johnson’s time at 9.64-9.73 Either way, this fantasy race has Mo handing everyone their asses with the possible exception of Ben.

Conclusion:
Most of the times agree on who is the best, just based on wind readings. Gatlin and Asafa are roughly tied, Asafa having the edge due to a better reaction time. However, if we adjusted times for the “what ifs” of Edmonton and Seoul, I think it’s safe to say Mo and Ben were in a league of their own. Of course, this is all speculation anyway, just another way to see our favorite races.

(this turned out way longer than I intended)

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It’s all good fun.

But one thing I take from it is that time-span between Ben’s 9.79 and Powell-Gatlin-Powell’s 9.77. It’s not a big improvement from 1988 to 2005/6.

BJ was so far ahead of the game. So much info about how Charlie F coached Ben has been disseminated globally yet progress remains miniscule - at least on the clock.