Men's 100 metres world record progression

The first record in the 100 metres for men (athletics) was recognised by the International Amateur Athletics Federation, now known as the International Association of Athletics Federations, in 1912.

As of June 21, 2009, the IAAF has ratified 65 records in the event, not including annulled records.^[1]

World record progression for the men's 100 m.

Unofficial progression before the IAAF

This section requires expansion.

IAAF record progression

Records 1912–1976

Time	Wind	Auto	Athlete	Nationality	Location of race	Date
10.6			Don Lippincott	United States	Stockholm, Sweden	July 6, 1912[1]
			Jackson Scholz	United States		September 16, 1920[1]
10.4			Charlie Paddock	United States	Redlands, USA	April 23, 1921[1]
	0.0		Eddie Tolan	United States	Stockholm, Sweden	August 8, 1929[1]
					Copenhagen, Denmark	August 25, 1929[1]
10.3			Percy Williams	Canada	Toronto, Canada	August 9, 1930[1]
			Arthur Jonath	Germany	Bochum, Germany	July 5, 1932[2]
	0.4	10.38	Eddie Tolan	United States	Los Angeles, USA	August 1, 1932[1]
	0.4	10.38	Ralph Metcalfe	United States	Los Angeles, USA	August 1, 1932[2]
			Ralph Metcalfe	United States	Budapest, Hungary	August 12, 1933[1]
			Eulace Peacock	United States	Oslo, Norway	August 6, 1934[1]
			Chris Berger	Netherlands	Amsterdam, Netherlands	August 26, 1934[1]
			Ralph Metcalfe	United States	Osaka, Japan	September 15, 1934[1]
	2.0				Dairen, China	September 23, 1934[1]
	2.5		Takanori Yoshioka	Japan	Tokyo, Japan	June 15, 1935[1]
10.2	1.2		Jesse Owens	United States	Chicago, USA	June 20, 1936[1]
	-0.9		Harold Davis	United States	Compton, USA	June 6, 1941[1]
	0.7		Lloyd LaBeach	Panama	Fresno, USA	May 15, 1948[1]
		10.35	Barney Ewell	United States	Evanston, USA	July 9, 1948[1]
	0.0		Emmanuel McDonald Bailey	Great Britain	Belgrade, Yugoslavia	August 25, 1951[1]
	1.1		Heinz Fütterer	West Germany	Yokohama, Japan	October 31, 1954[1]
	0.9		Bobby Joe Morrow	United States	Houston, USA	May 19, 1956[1]
	-1.0		Ira Murchison	United States	Compton, USA	June 1, 1956[1]
	0.0		Bobby Joe Morrow	United States	Bakersfield, USA	June 22, 1956[1]
	-1.3		Ira Murchison	United States	Los Angeles, USA	June 29, 1956[1]
	-0.4		Bobby Joe Morrow	United States
10.1	0.7		Willie Williams	United States	Berlin, Germany	August 3, 1956[1]
	1.0		Ira Murchison	United States	Berlin, Germany	August 4, 1956[1]
	1.5		Leamon King	United States	Ontario, USA	October 20, 1956[1]
	0.9				Santa Ana, USA	October 27, 1956[1]
	1.3		Ray Norton	United States	San Jose, USA	April 18, 1959[1]
10.0	0.9	10.25	Armin Hary	West Germany	Zürich, Switzerland	June 21, 1960[1]
	1.8		Harry Jerome	Canada	Saskatoon, Canada	July 15, 1960[1]
	0.0		Horacio Esteves	Venezuela	Caracas, Venezuela	August 15, 1964[1]
	1.3	10.06	Bob Hayes	United States	Tokyo, Japan	October 15, 1964[1]
	2.0	10.17	Jim Hines	United States	Modesto, USA	May 27, 1967[1]
	1.8		Enrique Figuerola	Cuba	Budapest, Hungary	June 17, 1967[1]
	0.0		Paul Nash	South Africa	Krugersdorp, South Africa	April 2, 1968[1]
	1.1		Oliver Ford	United States	Albuquerque, USA	May 31, 1968[1]
	2.0	10.20	Charles Greene	United States	Sacramento, USA	June 20, 1968[1]
	2.0	10.28	Roger Bambuck	France
9.9	0.8	10.03	Jim Hines	United States	Sacramento, USA	June 20, 1968[1]
	0.9	10.14	Ronnie Ray Smith	United States
	0.9	10.10	Charles Greene	United States
	0.3	9.95	Jim Hines	United States	Mexico City, Mexico	October 14, 1968[1]
	0.0		Eddie Hart	United States	Eugene, USA	July 1, 1972[1]
	0.0		Reynaud Robinson	United States
	1.3		Steve Williams	United States	Los Angeles, USA	June 21, 1974[1]
	1.7		Silvio Leonard	Cuba	Ostrava, Czechoslovakia	June 5, 1975[1]
	0.0		Steve Williams	United States	Siena, Italy	July 16, 1975[1]
	-0.2				Berlin, Germany	August 22, 1975[1]
	0.7				Gainesville, USA	March 27, 1976[1]
	0.7		Harvey Glance	United States	Columbia, USA	April 3, 1976[1]
					Baton Rouge, USA	May 1, 1976[1]
	1.7		Don Quarrie	Jamaica	Modesto, USA	May 22, 1976[1]

Electronic timing (from 1977)

From 1975, the IAAF accepted separate automatically electronically timed records for events up to 400 metres. Starting January 1, 1977, the IAAF required fully automatic timing to the hundredth of a second for these events.^[1]

Jim Hines' October 1968 Olympic gold medal run was the fastest recorded fully electronic 100 metre race to that time, at 9.95.^[1] Track and Field News has compiled an unofficial list of automatically timed records starting with the 1964 Olympics and Bob Hayes' gold medal performance there. Those marks are included in the progression.

Time	Wind	Auto	Athlete	Nationality	Location of race	Date	Notes[note 1]
10.06	1.3		Bob Hayes	United States	Tokyo, Japan	October 15, 1964	[3]
10.03	0.8		Jim Hines	United States	Sacramento, USA	June 20, 1968	[3]
10.02	2.0		Charles Green	United States	Mexico City, Mexico	October 13, 1968	A[3]
9.95	0.3		Jim Hines	United States	Mexico City, Mexico	October 14, 1968	OR, A[1]
9.93	1.4		Calvin Smith	United States	Colorado Springs, USA	July 3, 1983	A[1]
9.83	1.0		Ben Johnson	Canada	Rome, Italy	August 30, 1987	[note 2]
9.93	1.0		Carl Lewis	United States	Rome, Italy	August 30, 1987	[3][4][note 3]
	1.1				Zürich, Switzerland	August 17, 1988	[3]
9.92	1.1		Carl Lewis	United States	Seoul, South Korea	September 24, 1988	OR[1]
9.90	1.9		Leroy Burrell	United States	New York, USA	June 14, 1991	[1]
9.86	1.0		Carl Lewis	United States	Tokyo, Japan	August 25, 1991	[1]
9.85	1.2		Leroy Burrell	United States	Lausanne, Switzerland	July 6, 1994	[1]
9.84	0.7		Donovan Bailey	Canada	Atlanta, USA	July 27, 1996	OR[1]
9.79	0.1		Maurice Greene	United States	Athens, Greece	June 16, 1999	[1]
9.78	2.0		Tim Montgomery	United States	Paris, France	September 14, 2002	[5][note 4]
9.77	1.6	9.768	Asafa Powell	Jamaica	Athens, Greece	June 14, 2005	[1]
	1.7	9.766	Justin Gatlin	United States	Doha, Qatar	May 12, 2006	[3][6][note 5]
	1.5	9.763	Asafa Powell	Jamaica	Gateshead, England	June 11, 2006	[1]
	1.0	9.762			Zürich, Switzerland	August 18, 2006	[1]
9.74	1.7		Asafa Powell	Jamaica	Rieti, Italy	September 9, 2007	[note 6]
9.72	1.7		Usain Bolt	Jamaica	New York, US	May 31, 2008	[1]
9.69	0.0	9.683			Beijing, China	August 16, 2008	OR [1]
9.58	0.9	9.578			Berlin, Germany	August 16, 2009	[7][8]

Low altitude record progression 1968-87

The IAAF considers marks set at high altitude as acceptable for record consideration. However, some observers have noted that high altitude can significantly assist sprint performances. One estimate suggests times in the 200 m dash can be assisted by 0.09 s to 0.14 s with the maximum allowable tailing wind (2.0 m/s), and gain 0.3 s at altitudes over 2000 m.[6] For this reason, separate low-altitude lists have been compiled, though the IAAF does not officially recognize separate records. Once the IAAF started to recognize only electronic times, marks set at high altitude were not equalled or surpassed by low-altitude performances until 1987. The following progression of low-altitude marks starts with the "record" when the IAAF started to recognize only electronic timing and continues to the first mark that equalled the world record in 1987. (Ben Johnson's 9.95 run in 1986 and 9.83 run in 1987 are omitted.)

Time	Athlete	Nationality	Location of race	Date
10.03	Jim Hines [3]	United States	Sacramento, USA	June 20, 1968
10.03	Silvio Leonard[3]	Cuba	Havana, Cuba	September 13, 1977
10.02	James Sanford[3]	United States	Westwood, USA	May 11, 1980
10.00	Carl Lewis[3]	United States	Dallas, USA	May 16, 1981
10.00	Carl Lewis[3]	United States	Modesto, USA	May 15, 1982
9.97	Carl Lewis[3]	United States	Modesto, USA	May 14, 1983
9.97	Calvin Smith[3]	United States	Zürich, Switzerland	August 24, 1983
9.96	Mel Lattany[3]	United States	Athens, USA	May 5, 1984
9.93	Carl Lewis[3]	United States	Rome, Italy	August 30, 1987

See also

• 100 metres
• Women's 100 metres world record progression
• Men's 200 metres world record progression
• 100 yard dash
• Sprints

Notes

1. ^ "A" stands for records set more than 1,000 metres above sea level, "OR" stands for Olympic records
2. ^ Ben Johnson's time of 9.79 on September 24, 1988 was disallowed and never ratified as a record as he tested positive for stanozolol after the race. Johnson subsequently admitted to steroid stanozolol use between 1981 and 1988, including during the 1988 Olympics. His world record of 9.83 set on August 30, 1987 was rescinded by the IAAF Council in September 1989.(Track and Field News, November 1989, vol. 42, #11, p. 37)
3. ^ Carl Lewis's two performances at 9.93 were deemed by the IAAF to have equalled the world record after Ben Johnson's 9.83 time was rescinded but were never ratified as world records; Lewis's 9.92, his gold-medal winning time at the Seoul Olympics after Johnson was disqualified, was recognized as the world record from January 1, 1990.
4. ^ Tim Montgomery's time of 9.78 from September 14, 2002 was annulled following disqualification for banned drug use. Ruling in 2005 on his involvement with BALCO scandal rescinded all records and medals from 2001 onwards. By that time, however, it had been surpassed by Asafa Powell.[1]
5. ^ Justin Gatlin was briefly credited with a new world record time of 9.76, but the IAAF announced five days later that the official timers, Tissot Timing, had discovered that time was incorrect. Gatlin's time, recorded to the thousandth of a second, was 9.766 and had erroneously been rounded down to the nearest hundredth instead of rounded up. This time instead made Gatlin co-world record holder with Asafa Powell.[2] However, in 2007 this record was annulled following Gatlin's failed doping test.[3]
6. ^ Asafa Powell's 9.74 world record does not appear on the IAAF's list of ratified records for the 100 metres as of June 21, 2009. However, the mark was ratified by the IAAF [4] and appears on the current all-time performance list, indicating it was never rescinded.[5]

References

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