Yohan Blake runs 9.69s in Lausanne...

Last Thursday evening (23rd Aug 2012) at the IAAF Diamond League meeting at Lausanne in Switzerland, Yohan Blake of Jamaica became only the third man ever to run under 9.7 seconds in the mens 100m. His time of 9.69 seconds equaled the time of Tyson Gay although Gay did have a slight following wind in his favour.


Fastest five 100m times ever...
1      9.58       +0.9    Usain Bolt   JAM     21.08.86    Berlin      16.08.2009
2      9.63       +1.5    Usain Bolt   JAM     21.08.86    London    05.08.2012
3      9.69       ±0.0    Usain Bolt    JAM     21.08.86   Beijing    16.08.2008
3      9.69       +2.0    Tyson Gay    USA     09.08.82   Shanghai    20.09.2009
3      9.69       -0.1    Yohan Blake  JAM     26.12.89   Lausanne    23.08.2012

The only person to have run faster was of course Usain Bolt. It's an amazing time considering that the 9.8 second barrier was only broken for the first time back in 1999 by Maurice Greene of the USA and Blake's time is a full one tenth of a second faster.

At the same meeting, Usain Bolt won the 200m in 19.58 seconds. While this is well slower than his world record time of 19.19 and his London Olympic time of 19.32, only three men have ever run faster than this.

It's reported that it now costs organisers $150,000 for the likes of Yohan Blake to take part in a Diamond League race. Bolt is supposed to cost twice as much.