Bolt 45.92 (splits 20.8)

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Bolt opens year well at 400m
Tuesday 13 February 2007
Kingston, Jamaica - Olympic 400m Hurdles silver medallist Danny McFarlane, 34, and World Junior 200m record holder Usain Bolt, 20, opened their season with good 400m performances at (10) Saturday’s Camperdown Classic held at the National Stadium east complex.

Bolt, who ran in the first heat/section, won the 400m event in 45.92 seconds while McFarlane, who was second in the second heat/section, finished fourth overall in 47.29. Leford Green was second fastest overall in 46.45, while heat two winner Xavier Brown was third in 47.27.

Bolt, the World Junior 200m recordholder (19.93 - 2004) who has a 400m best of 45.35 (2003), was timed at 20.8 at the 200m point of his run, confirmed, "I think it’s a very good time … I haven’t run a 400m in a while so, I think I did pretty well and I have a lot more time to improve later in the year.”

While admitting he was pressured for the first 200m by Green, Bolt who did not break clear until the final straight also said he did better than he had planned:

“My coach told me to try and run the first 200m in 22 seconds, but when I reached the backstretch Green kind of pushed me a little, and that why I think we ran so fast on the backstretch, but it went as planned,” added the 2002 World Junior champion.

“I came round (the corner) and stayed strong and flat, and held my form well, so I don’t have any problem with that,” he added while saying “the last 100m was a little bid hard.”

As for McFarlane, the aim was just to run. “The goal was just to come out here, run a 400m and get a blow out,” he said. "…I did not came out trying to do anything spectacular or anything.”

Anthony Foster for the IAAF

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hat 20.8 is wrong. It was measured at some white line before the 200m mark instead of at the Lane 4 stagger at the 200m start. Check the video I posted:

atch Video at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pRpYtKYTN8

download video at:

http://www.divshare.com/download/118872-13a

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There’s a job for you in the IAAF later on in your grey haired life Daniel! :smiley: :stuck_out_tongue:

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Do you know what time he actually split at 200? How far off was the anonymous 20.8?

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Not sure, Ill have to ask around, I know a few people who were actually at the meet. If the video was taken from a higher angle I could make a good estimate.

Right now my best bet is mid to high 21 at best.

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im not too familiar with the running split times for a 400m.
but
a 200m in 21s out of blocks (1 extra sec for the start v’s flying start for the 2nd 200m)
then 2nd 200m in 24.9
for a 400m in 45.9.
too me, that just spells PAIN
that 21s out of blocks is say 20 off a fly, thats 4.9s slower than the 2nd 200m, and most of that was possably in the last 100m! OUCH

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The video is very difficult to read but from the apparent conventional marks of the track at 100m, 200m and the other one at 300m, we can roughly estimate Bolt’s 100m intervals:
100m 10.9
200m 20.8 (9.9)
300m 33.3 (12.5)
400m 45.9 (12.6)

(MJ’s WR was 11.1 + 10.1 + 10.5 + 11.5 = 43.2).

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Bolt was very conservative in the third 100 and even off that he is outside world class expectations for his fourth 100m. But it’s very early days and he’s bound to improve plenty from this.

The 9.9 backstraight was also pretty wild, but if you were looking for a blow-out that would set it up handsomely :stuck_out_tongue:

Apart from that, it’s GREAT work to Daniel for getting and posting the video evidence and to PJ for his splits analysis. What a tag team :slight_smile:

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Is Bolt moving up to 400m? Or is this a 400m opener a-la Asafa, Marion.

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9.9 is not often seen during 400m races (it happened at least twice in Tokyo’91 with one of the Britons and during 96 US Trials) but Bolt’s speed reserve makes it looking easy.

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I remember in Tokyo the backstraight split were electronic 10.00 for Mark Garner but even off such a wild pace, he still ran mid-to-low 45sec, so that’s why I’m suggesting Bolt did not do such a great job in the second half of his race (either that he did not fully extend himself on this occasion).

Some interesting aspects are revealed by 9.9 backstraight. It shows [u]400m competitors must have: good reserve speed, good rolling speed, good capacity to maintain good rolling speed, (which implies technical and therefore fuel efficiency).[/u]

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kk, what do you think would be ideal pace for Bolt or such? With 20.8 he still has 1sec speed reserve at mid way. It seems that 200m sprinters trying 400m need to have relatively slower pace.

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Theoretically 1-second reserve is perfect. My best guy pushed it down as far as 0.8sec and still finished very well off that on occasion. But that was when everything else (raising the aerobic/anaerobic barrier; extending the special speed endurance [40-second zone]) was in place.

But Michael Johnson holds the WR and he split a classic 21.2sec to his 43.2, yet holds the 200 WR at 19.3, which as we see is basically a 2-second reserve.

His WR really could have been sub 43sec I think if he taken advantage of his - or created more favourable - opportunities at 400m.

With 2sec speed reserve, his opening 200m split of 21.2sec must have seemed like a jog to him.

Whether he had more alactic fuel at his disposal or whether he was using more aerobic resources to get through the opening 200m so easily I’m not sure, but I’d love to know the answer because obviously it would have training/coaching implications.

In any case it would have been a key to the way he - and most of the great 400m runners -thrashed the third 100m to set up momentum for the roll down the home straight.

The exercise physiologists need to enter the discussion at this point.

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Charlie discussed MJ’s WR’s at the seminar and hopefully I get this right, was of the opinion that his intention was to set the 200m WR at the Games then a few weeks later annihilate the 400m one but was unable to do that due to injury.

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I don’t think we should calculate the speed reserve from the athlete’s 200m personal best. It will not be representative of what the athlete can produce on any given day. A personal best at that level is something that only happens when many favorable conditions come into place,

It should be calculated at say, an average of the athlete’s 5 best times for the season or just his 2nd or 3rd best time or something like that.

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This could be a good analogy. Generally, MJ would be running what, 19.9 for 200m on any given occasion? That gives him a speed reserve of 1.4s.
And as John says before, MJ just went for the win in the 400m and a WR at the 200m, then planned on using that extra speed in 10-14days later to Blow apart the 400m due to much greater speed in the 200m. Injuries!!

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If you want to set up your race pace using this concept (target splits) then you use Current Form and, hopefully, your current form at all distances will be your (latest) PB :slight_smile:

Certainly in Michael Johnson’s case, he just ran a legal 19.32 in his eighth race in about six or seven days at Atlanta, so if anything it could reasonably be argued had he been “fresh” he could have run faster at 200m.

You may recall he raced four rounds of the 400 Before lining up for his WR 19.32sec in the 200m.

But in any case, his “current season” 1996 best at 200m was a reliable 19.3 and so I think my original logic remains sound.

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Call me a sceptic but especially at the elite level of track and field, I don’t think that someone’s form should be judged by their personal best. Simply because a personal best is usually set when favourable conditions/opportunities align, (fast track, wind, near perfect execution, weather, altitude etc). If it wasnt like that then athletes would be able to run personal bests at will.

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Dear sceptic,

We seem to be separated by a common language.

Let me say this Again: CURRENT FORM is the only determinant.

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Which explains why about the rumours that he was planning a massive effort over 400m 10-14days after the games after the WR 200m!
He knew he was running FAST, and wanted that record put way out of the ball park.