Justin Gatlin runs Wind Assisted 100m in 9.45 seconds

As part of a stunt for the Japanese game show Kasupe!, US sprinter Justin Gatlin recorded an unofficial time of 9.45 seconds for the 100m assisted by a wind turbine and fans.

This is well under the 9.58 seconds recorded by Usain Bolt in Berlin in 2009.

While it's not a serious record, it just goes to show how much air resistance is a factor in sprinting.

Usain Bolt beats Gatlin again to win 200m Gold

The final of the mens 200m today saw a rematch between Usain Bolt and Justin Gatlin once again. With the two of them level at the 100m mar, Bolt used his long stride to pull away over the second 100m to take Gold.

POS    ATHLETE    COUNTRY    MARK        REACTION TIME
1    Usain BOLT    JAM JAM        19.55    WL    0.147
2    Justin GATLIN    USA USA        19.74        0.161
3    Anaso JOBODWANA    RSA RSA    19.87    NR    0.154
4    Alonso EDWARD    PAN PAN        19.87    SB    0.170
5    Zharnel HUGHES    GBR GBR        20.02    PB    0.119
6    Ramil GULIYEV    TUR TUR            20.11        0.180
7    Femi OGUNODE    QAT QAT            20.27        0.198
8    Nickel ASHMEADE    JAM JAM    20.33        0.132

This was also Bolt's 10th Gold medal at World Championships.

Usain Bolt beat Gatlin to take World Championship 100m title

In what was probably the race of the year, Olympic champion and world record holder Usain Bolt went head to head with Justin Gatlin of the USA who has served two bans for doping. In what was billed as a battle between good and evil, Usain Bolt managed to take Gold in the final of the 100m at the World Championships in Beijing.

Race video...

NIKE sponsor drugs cheat Justin Gatlin

Justin Gatlin of the USA is one of the world's top sprinters with a personal best of 9.77 seconds for 100m. He is however a controversial character having twice been banned for drug offences.....for amphetamines in 2001  and for testosterone in 2006.

The news that he has been given a sponsorship deal by NIKE has been greeted by dismay by many in the athletics community.

Paula Radcliffe in her twitter posted the following........“I am very disappointed to hear this news. I don’t believe it truly reflects the core values of the Nike that I am proud to represent, nor the integrity and the ideals of the people I work with on a daily basis.”

Athletics Weekly have an article on it HERE .....and they ask how can a company like NIKE sponsor a known drugs cheat like Gatlin and yet drop someone like Jo Pavey who won the 10000m at the European Championships last year aged 41.

Benefits from doping could last decades according to new research

Scientists at the University of Oslo have found that athletes can benefit from taking anabolic steroids for decades after they have taken them. These new findings will obviously have major implications considering that those that are caught are serving two year bans.

Kristian Gundersen, Professor of Physiology at the University of Oslo said..."I think it is likely that effects could be lifelong or at least lasting decades in humans. If you exercise, or take anabolic steroids, you get more nuclei and you get bigger muscles. If you take away the steroids, you lose the muscle mass, but the nuclei remain inside the muscle fibres. They are like temporarily closed factories, ready to start producing protein again when you start exercising again. Our data indicates the exclusion time of two years is far too short. Even four years is too short."

These findings are all the more relevant now considering that controversial US sprinter Justin Gatlin has been nominated for IAAF male athlete of the year.  Gatlin was the 2004 Olympic 100m gold medalist and was double sprint world champion in 2005. He was banned for four years from 2006 to 2010 after failing a drugs test for a second time.

In the last week, Olympic discus champion Robert Harting from Germany asked to be removed from the nomination list in protest at Gatlin's inclusion.

Dai Greene, a former British 400m hurldes champion offered this opinion......"It shows one of two things: either he's still taking performance-enhancing drugs to get the best out of him at his advanced age (32), or the ones he did take are still doing a fantastic job because there is no way he can still be running that well at this late point in his career."

There is a very good article today by Tom Fordyce about the study on the BBC News website.

The BBC also had another article about Justin Gatlin yesterday.

All this no doubt will add to the pressure to have the governing body the IAAF to do something serious about doping. It's a bit of a farce that they can take a take a Gold medal off the French athlete Mahiedine Benabbad for taking off his singlet in the home straight of the steeplechase race in the European championships yet they can have one of the most notorious dopers nominated for male athlete of the year.

Usain Bolt and Tyson Gay win their respective 100m trials

In the Jamaican trial for the 2013 World Championships, Usain Bolt won the 100m race in a time of 9.94 seconds. Despite a slow start, Bolt was in control in the last third of the race and just did enough to win.



In the US trials, Tyson Gay won the mens 100m race in a very impressive 9.75 seconds. If he can improve on that time at the World Championships in Moscow in August, he will be a serious challenge to the Jamaican duo of Bolt and Blake.


Justin Gatlin finished 2nd in 9.89 seconds.

Turbulent week in mens 100m...Gatlin beats Bolt, Lemaitre beats Gatlin

At the Golden Gala meet in Rome last week, the world of mens sprinting had a major upset when the Olympic champion Usain Bolt was beaten in the 100m. Despite getting a good start, Bolt was unable to pull away from the field in the second half and Justin Gatlin from the US won the race in a time of 9.94 seconds. Bolt finished just one hundredth of a second behind in 9.95 seconds.

In a post race interview, Bolt said...."The fact I got a perfect start threw me off. After five steps in I stumbled. I have to do more strength work, I guess. My legs did not feel the energy. At 50 metres I had some problems, but the rest of my race was not bad. You learn more from losing. You can't win every race in your career. The season is still very early. I am not surprised. I have time – I'm not worried."


Justin Gatlin is a controversial figure in the world of athletics having served a four year ban between 2006 and 2010 after testing positive for a banned substance. He had previously won the Olympic title in 2004 and was the bronze medalist in the 2012 London Games.

Fast forward to last Saturday to a race in Rabat, Morocco and Gatlin is beaten by the European champion Christophe Lemaitre. Despite getting a poor start, the Frenchman powered back in the last third of the race to win in a time of 9.98 seconds. (Wind +2.9m/s). Gatlin finished second in 10.02.