2016 sub-10 kings

The official sub-10 king is Asafa Powell, who has run 94 sub-10 100m clockings at the time of writing. Some would say the real king is Usain Bolt and that a sub-10 king title is a false consolation prize for Powell.

Yet this year has seen three very worthy men running sub-10 in the 100m:  Wayde van Niekerk, Omar McLeod, and Kim Collins.

South Africa’s first sub-10 runner came in the form of Akani Simbine on 8th March 2016, but just a few days later in Bloemfontein, South Africa, the current 400m World Champion Wayde van Niekerk made sprint history by becoming the first man ever to run a sub-44 400m, sub-20 200m and sub-10 100m.

Meanwhile, Omar McLeod of Jamaica took the honour of becoming the first man to run a sub-13 110m hurdles and a sub-10 100m after he recorded a new personal best time of 9.99 on 23rd April. He expressed his elation via Twitter:

“Hard to believe that I haven’t ran this event in five years and my personal best prior to this was 11.02 wind-legal. So with that said, this race kinda means a lot. Finally trusting my abilities!”

This year Omar leads the field in the 110m hurdles with a time of 12.98 s at the 2016 Shanghai Diamond League, though Van Niekerk’s 44.11 s 400m is second only to the reigning Olympic and former World Champion in 2011, Kirani James. No doubt both McLeod and van Niekerk will be among the favourites to take the gold medal in Rio in their respective events.

Perhaps not among the favourites to take glory in Rio is Kim Collins, but his story is probably the most impressive of all. The grandfather of track and field first ran sub-ten in 2002, but at the age of 38 he set a new personal best of 9.96 s and became the world record holder for the Veteran 35 category. Since ascending to the V40, Collins recently lowered his mark to 9.93 s at the tender age of forty, 0.05 seconds faster than what he ran in 2002.

The veteran athlete told USA TODAY Sports:

“The key to doing track and field for so long is that the body remembers,” Collins said. “So once I get fit I have no problem, because I’ve been doing it for so many years. Once you get fit first, it’s easy for anybody to last as long as I have in this sport.”

When a hurdler, a 400m runner and a 40 year old run sub-10 in the 100m, does this not somewhat undermine the achievements these days of the 100m sprinter who dips below that magic barrier?