In a blink of an eye

Speedsters are one in a million. Although the Olympics have recorded quite a few, there's so much power to be able to run a 200 meter dash in 20 seconds. These ‘Flash’ clones are so fast that you won’t even have enough time to jaw-drop. An international magazine recently featured six of the world’s fastest sprinters. Theirs are an amazing feat (I guess, I'm not the only one on research mode). Let’s see how they fared.

1.Usain Bolt – by far the fastest among the lot. Usain recorded 19.30 seconds on a 200-m mark at 23 years old! And he claims he loaded on chicken nuggets in Beijing….hmmm, interesting.

2.Carl Lewis – earning his gold medal for nine times, set the 100-m world record at 9.92 in 1988 and 9.86 in 1991! Whew!

3.Michael Johnson – albeit just 2 seconds slower than Bolt, some publicized him as the world’s fastest in 1996.

4.Ben Johnson – despite a positive steroid test, clocked in at 9.79 in 1988.

5.Jesse Owens – who once outraced a horse, also held the long-jump record for 25 years.

6.Charley Paddock – whose idea of a carboload is a sherry and raw egg, trailblazed a 100-meter dash at 10.4 seconds in 1921.

But like they say, sprinters and runners are different. The former goes for speed, while the latter for endurance. Well, what do you think?






Sources: Time; scienceblogs.com