I hate to take it here so early...but since you asked for thoughts:

Think they're all juiced up. Bolt included. Comical how media built this up as Clean vs. Dirty. Of course... Bolt is superhuman, has run superhuman times, and has been clean... when everyone else in the past 30+ years has been dirty. Sorry, don't buy it.

But, impressive to see them haul ass over 100 meters.

No doubt when you lose by one-hundredth of a second, you can look to the form break in the final 15 meters.

Doping and all with Gatlin, I was still rooting for him because there's always been something I just don't like about Bolt.

I find Bolt pretty awesome from a personality angle and have nothing against Gatlin in this the most juiced event in the planet anyway. Frankly I just wanted to talk about what we saw (I realize hard to decouple from the "preparation") but I realize you can never separate the event from what the prep was. In any case, this was the day for Gatlin. He screwed up his execusion. That flailing and loss of fluidity and symmetry in the final 15 m....that was like high school silver medalist form (you know the guy who is in the lead for 85m and binds up and loses in the lean).

A fasttwitch discussion on ST, what is the world coming to? What is with the quck dig about juicing. It's not like there isn't juicing in endurance sports. Not to mention the legal PED use with the way energy supplements are gobbled down like kids eating candy at Halloween

I agree and I wasn't trying to turn this into a doping discussion.

Personally, I'm more familiar with the middle distance/cross country tie up which forces me to stand upright and start leaning backwards.

I think Gatlin will get him in Rio.

Gatlin must have been shocked when he saw Bolt catching him; he really didn't expect that, based on his domination of early rounds. And then he simply panicked and, frankly, imploded. The great story of this race is that, aside from Bolt, the only two athletes that didn't underperform in the final were the bronze-medallist kids - everyone else flamed out after sexier early round performances. De Grasse is a great story - literally, the Kid From Nowhere, less than 3 years after starting competitive track, finds himself on the podium. Very cool, particularly in this day of parents getting their 4-6-yr-olds on a career track in a specific sport. Hard to say if he'll continue to improve by leaps and bounds or if improvement will slow. That arm really needs fixing (some are saying, "if it ain't broke..." but the arm movement can't be all that efficient and it means he's using extra energy in his torso to counterbalance). The guy has some astonishing nervous system that gives him that second gear at 60m. Maybe if he bulks up a bit he'll be better in the first 30m (right now, he looks like a triathlete).

As for Gatlin - he's an example of how most national federations go to bat for their athletes and get them sweet deals when they're caught. Seb Coe will never be able to defeat that, even if he wants to. And then there's the Russians, who generally just cover everything up, because the top men in all the sport federations are Putin cronies and any doping allegation against one of their own is a "western conspiracy". However, I digress.

Somebody will be first and someone will be first loser. ;)

Great analysis Peter...as for De Grasse's right arm...that is definitely broken and needs fixing. Sorry, when you're racing for 100th of seconds that arm counts for some losses,and that's not just going to translate into his upper body counterbalance, but opposing pelvis and leg (would love to see what happens on the other side of his body frame by frame at 1/1000ths if that is possible. The kid is barely 20 and will fill out and that start will get faster. It was really exciting watching all these guys today.

As for the doping discussion, well, I just view all this like when I watch NFL. The show is pretty awesome. It does not mean I am pro doping, but it's out of my hands. I am still going to watch the 100m at every major meet just like I will watch the NFL playoffs....hopefully national and international federations can deliver us a clean show but if it ain't I'll still watch anyway.

9.79....wasn't that Bens winning time Seoul 1988?

Gatling blew it. Thank god.

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@rhyspencer

Most seem to be concentrating on the loss of form in the final 15m.
Yes its there, but Gatlin has always been a faster starter than Bolt who then needs to draw in him as he gets his longer stride working.
On the first replay I noticed Gatlin drag his right toe along the ground as he got out of the blocks.
I'm not saying he did this deliberately as hes proved he's the type of tool who isnt bothered about what people think of him and would nt throw a race.
Maybe it was just the pressure on the day?
FWIW I think Gatlin is a cock.

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Dont complain about the results you did n't get from the training you did n't do.

Am I the only one wondering how many watts these guys push to get up to their top speed. 3000+?

I don't know, kinda sounds like pro-doping to me.

Yes it was. But now they are clean...

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How does Danny Hart sit down with balls that big?

Actually I am quite anti doping. It's just that I can't do anything about IAAF doping or NFL doping or FIFA doping or UCI doping but I really enjoy watching them. I can do something about triathlon doping through my federation and the IM guys so I can use whatever energy I have for the topic there.

Yes, his time in Seoul was 9.79.

If you have not watched the documentary on the Seoul final you have to watch it.

http://espn.go.com/30for30/film?page=9.79

You have to take the event for what it is; a spectacle.

This whole good vs bad thing is a load of wilfully naive nonsense that has the possibility of making a lot of people look stupid in a few years. Only a year or so back, Jamaica was lambasted & investigated for its woefully inadequate anti-doping program.

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29 years and counting

Dopers racing dopers. They will never clean this up, would be the end of the sport. Saw a chart over the weekend on Twitter similar to the one showing all the TDF dopers scratched off the list after Lance was busted and there was no one to give his titles to. This chart showed all of Bolt's races and everyone is scratched off for doping except him. Really? Watch this for what it is people.

Gatlin had the opportunity and ability to beat Bolt, on the second biggest stage, and couldn't come through. He's clearly been the best sprinter in the world over the last two years and performed better through the rounds.

I don't think he underestimated Bolt, as to underestimate the best sprinter ever would be idiotic, even if he hasn't performed very well.

I found his emotion, in the post-race interview, honest and refreshing. You don't often get to see real emotion from athletes and you could tell that he really took the loss to heart.

On a similar note, Huddle's let-up/ pre-celebration in the w's 10k is one that may be harder to get over and an even bigger "loss". That might be her only/ best chance for a championship medal, and she "brain farted" the medal away (at least it was to another American). While Gatlin has one major championships before, and will have other chances, Huddle has to deal with a never-ending army of Kenyan/Ethiopian athletes, as well as the other Americans. It's not Huddles first time doing this either. Just watched a video from a past USATF XC nationals, where she let up right before the line and got beat. That's a tough lesson to learn... twice.

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John Hartpence, Athlete & Coach
tripence@gmail.com, @coachpence

Are you suggesting that a human without a machine can produce the amount of power equivalent to 4 horses or more?

My guess would be around 1000 watts.

According to a 1993 study, a horse can generate around 14.9 hp (peak), or a bit over 11,000 watts. Not sure what kind of horse that is though.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horsepower

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

Interesting, a horse can produce 15 horsepower, who would have guessed? I'm gonna stick with a human running around 1,000 watts though (1.3 hp) for a short period of time.

Here's an article looking at the vertical leap.

http://www.wired.com/...t-the-vertical-leap/

Leading up to it Bolt looked like someone that was finally under some doping scrutiny, unlike the zero tests prior to London. That low to sub 9.6 speed disappeared over night even before his injury. It was surprising to see him come round on Gatlin in the final though. Totally, agree that Gatlin failed miserably to execute the final 10-15 meters and that probably cost him the race. It was like watching a high school meet.

The good versus evil media hype was ill informed at best, there hasn't been a clean 100m final in 40+ years. Much like cycling I know T&F at the world level is a total farce, but I can't stop watching it anyway.

..

That documentary was both brilliant and disturbing, mostly for the fact that it exposed national athletics federations' coverup. Regardless of what happened afterwards, I will never forget that race - Ben Johnson was awe-inspiring. God knows how fast he could have gone over the next 1-2 years if he hadn't been busted.

As for the other discussion, the argument that everyone should just be allowed to dope is wrongheaded. For starters, two basic reasons: it further widens the gap between have and have-not nations by giving those countries with the required infrastructure and resources to enhance their athletes an even greater advantage; more importantly, it will, to be blunt, kill a lot of athletes, as new drugs with inadequate testing and (more importantly) hyper-aggressive doping regimes will result in medium and long-term damage to bodies (select any number of NFL players, FloJo (seizure) and Pantani (doping-depression-death) as examples. Doping has not been conclusively linked to deaths of latter two, but I suspect that's the future for a number of super-athletes if we go the route of free-range doping. Do we really want our kids to go that way?