The queen of sports admonishes her fans: faster, higher, stronger! Track and field athletics include various sports: all-around, jumping, shot put and missile throwing, walking and running. But it is running disciplines that answer the wonderful question: who is the fastest person in the world?
Athletics has been known since ancient Rome, and to this day the whole world admires the ideal proportions of ancient Greek statues. Many ancient Greek philosophers themselves were excellent athletes and considered improving the body no less important than training the mind.
The reliability of the results
All running competitions regularly held in different parts of the world can no longer be counted. Yes and no need, because to establish an official world record you need to participate only in the largest, the founders of which are responsible sports organizations. These organizations should enjoy sufficient authority throughout the world, because they check the integrity of a sporting achievement. And in sports, as you know, honesty and generally honor are central. The competence of the inspectors includes the recently acclaimed anti-doping commissions, compliance with the regulations on the place and conditions, equipping with appropriate sports equipment, and, of course, fair refereeing.
As for running, it has long been judged by machines, not people. Manual timing at official international competitions has long been a thing of the past. Finishing is always registered by several cameras with auto-timing. The results when running along the path of the stadium are measured with an accuracy of 0.01 seconds, and when running on the highway - up to 0.1 seconds. As practice shows, at distances of more than 1,500 meters, high accuracy is no longer as important as in sprint races, where every hundredth of a second matters.
Competition Classification
So, at the moment, the most famous competitions in which the running program is included are the Olympic Games and the World Championships in Athletics. Moreover, the founder of the latter is directly the IAAF ( IAAF) - the International Athletics Association.
Most of the world records for running were recorded in these two competitions, not counting the ultramarathons, which are supervised by the IAU (International Supermarathon Association).
Absolutely all running disciplines differ in 5 main criteria:
Season of the year (winter and summer).
Place (indoor or outdoor stadium, highway, rough terrain).
Conditions (classic smooth running, marathon, super marathon, cross-country running, relay race, running with hurdles, with obstacles, with shooting at targets).
Duration of the distance (sprint, middle and stayer, including marathon and super marathon).
Gender (women or men).
The representatives of the beautiful half of humanity will have to be a little upset - only men are known in the list of the fastest people. It has long been no news that women are inferior to men in their physical strength, so they often use the other term “the weak half”.
10 fastest people in the world
Of all the 5 criteria in the disciplines, the main importance is not even the gender of the athlete or the coverage of the stadium, but the duration of the distance. What is the fastest person in the world - you can compare only by seeing the results at different distances. Therefore, our top 10 will be in 10 of the most widespread and well-known classical running disciplines in the world, in order of increasing distance - from 100 meters to more than 300 km. Only 10 world records that are relevant at the time of writing.
The current world records for increasing distances are arranged in the following order: sprint races of 100, 200 and 400 meters, races of medium distances of 800 and 1500 meters, races of long distances of 5000 meters, as well as a marathon, half marathon, 100 km super marathon and daily run .
Sprint distances
Short-distance running is called a sprint, and a runner is called a sprinter. For competition sprinters always use special tracks in an indoor or outdoor stadium. The distance to the finish line for men is at least 60 and not more than 400 meters. The standard program in international competitions provides sprint races for men on 100, 200 and 400 meters.
The Olympic program does not include 60-meter running, but the last record was set by Christian Coleman from the USA on February 19, 2018 in Albuquerque (USA), who ran this short distance in 6.34 seconds. At the 60-meter distance, the fastest man in the world developed a speed of 34.069 km / h. His career only began in 2016, and the athlete has good chances, because in 2017 he overtook Usain Bolt in the 100-meter race.
Record holders
1 place:
- 100 meters. Usain Bolt from Jamaica ran for 9.58 seconds on August 16, 2009 in Berlin at the World Championships, having improved his previous world record by 0.11 seconds. Thus, the speed of the fastest person in the world in km / h is 37.58! No wonder he was nicknamed Lightning Bolt!
- 200 meters. The same famous Golden Spikes winner ran the fastest on August 20, 2009 in Berlin at the World Championships. With a crushing 19.19 seconds, he improved his own Olympic record in Beijing (China) by 0.31 seconds.
Usain Bolt deserves top of the fastest people in the world, because at the moment he is considered the most successful sprinter in history. He began his sports career at the age of 17 at the Beijing 2004 Olympics (North Korea). For almost 15 years of his career, he managed to become an 11-time world champion in 3 disciplines (100 m, 200 m and the 4x100 m relay). The athlete also set 8 world records. The Jamaican team later withdrew the medal for the relay because of a positive doping test with partner Bolt. But two world records have been almost 10 years old, and officially no one could beat them. To date, the runner was planning to end his career, but who knows - maybe he will still surprise his fans at the Tokyo Olympics 2020?
2nd place:
- 400 meters in 43.03 seconds, Weide Van Nickerk from South Africa ran on August 14 at the Olympic Games in Rio 2016 (Brazil). The previous record in this distance was kept for 14 years in a row and belonged to another outstanding runner with a unique running style, Michael Johnson.
M. Johnson also holds other world records in the sprint (at 100, 200 and 400 meters) and 8 gold medals, so he is in 3rd place on the list of the most prominent sprinters after Usain Bolt and Karl Lewis.
Middle distances
Middle-distance runners cover distances from 600 to 3000 m. There is a significant difference from sprint races, where the loads are so high that the large circle of blood circulation does not even have time to completely pass from the heart to the legs. In the middle distances, anaerobic loads characteristic of the sprint are replaced by aerobic ones towards the middle of the race, which greatly complicates the task for the athlete and requires not only endurance and speed, but also tactical skills.
In standard programs, the disciplines of classic middle-distance running are at 800 and 1500 m. Runs at 1000 m, 1 mile and 2000 m, as a rule, are conducted at commercial and domestic competitions. In addition, all-around competitions include runs that take place on rough terrain in conjunction with target shooting (in pentathlon, running with target shooting at 3,000 m is called a “harvester”).
Record holders
3rd place:
- 800 m in just 1 min. and 40.91 seconds David Rudish ran from Kenya on August 9 at the London 2012 Olympics (UK). The Kenyan athlete became the IAAF's youngest athlete (at age 21) and the fastest person in the world at a distance of 800 m.
4th place:
- 1500 m. In 3 minutes and 26 seconds. Moroccan Hisham El Guerroj ran smoothly on July 4 at the Winter Olympics in Rome 1998 (Italy). He is a two-time Olympic champion and 7-time world champion. Also holder of two current records in the run for 1 mile and 2000 meters.
Styer distances
At long distances, the volume of anaerobic jogging becomes even less compared to aerobic jogging, so the most important is the correct calculation of strength and compliance with special breathing and jogging techniques. The distance ranges from 2 miles (3215 m) to hundreds of kilometers (in ultramarathons). Also for long-distance runners there is a separate discipline called cross (from the English cross country), or cross-country running. The average distance is about 3-12 km, but there is no strict standardization.
Record holders
5th place:
- 5000 m in 12 minutes and 37.35 seconds. the legendary Ethiopian athlete Kenenis Bekele Beyeca ran when he participated in the tournament in memory of the famous Dutch athlete (“Fanny Blankers-Kun Memorial”) in Hengelo on May 31, 2004. This athlete became one of the best styers on the planet, and his second current world record at a distance of 10,000 m is 26 minutes and 17.53 seconds. Kenenisa is a station wagon, and is able to run best not only in the arena, but also in rough terrain. He is a 16-time world champion in cross-country, and first declared himself at the World Championships in Athletics Cross-country in Ostend (Belgium) in 2001, becoming the best among juniors. The running speed of the fastest person in the world at distances of 5 and 10 km averages 23.13 km / h.
6th place:
- Half marathon (21 097.5 m) in 58 minutes and 23 seconds. Zersenai Tadesé from Eritrea overcame March 21, 2010 at the annual Lisbon Half Marathon (Portugal). He holds another current world record for 20,000 meters. His strategy is that he never uses sprinting at the finish line, but wins by maintaining a good pace and running efficiency over the entire distance.
7th place:
- Marathon (42 195 m) in 2 hours 2 minutes and 57 seconds. ran Dennis Kipruto Kimetto, also known as Dennis Kipruto Coech. The Kenyan runner set this record at the Berlin marathon on September 28, 2014. By the way, Kenenisa Bekele became the 2nd best marathoner in history, and plans to break this world record in the London marathon in the future (Virgin Money London Marathon), which will be April 22, 2018
Ultramarathons
In athletics, the concept of running (running on a highway) means running on a paved road, unlike running in the stadium along special tracks made of springy materials. Almost all disciplines longer than 10 km are taught on the highway. Mileage is usually calculated in kilometers (km), and the race in meters (m).
There are super-marathons for a fixed time: hourly daily and two-day runs.
Super marathons are all runs over a standard marathon of 42,195 meters, namely: 50,000 m, 100,000 m, 50,000 miles and 100,000 miles.
Record holders
The 8th and 9th place are shared by two athletes, and determining which of them is ahead is not easy. But the whole thing is this.
100 km in a record 6 hours 13 minutes and 33 seconds. defeated the Japanese Takahiro Sunada June 21, 1998 at the ultramarathon around Lake Saroma-Tokoro, about. Hokkaido (Japan). The running speed of the fastest person in the world at a distance of 100 km along the highway was 16.08 km / h.
But another record, which is actually 3 minutes and 23 seconds better, belongs to the Scotsman Donald Don Ritchie. Don ran the same leg in 6 hours, 10 minutes. and 20 seconds, but not on the highway, but on the track of the Crystal Palace Track Race in London on October 28, 1978.
As we understand it, running along the highway is more severe, so its winner can rightfully be considered the best in this distance.
On the other hand, during the days of Donald Ritchie’s best physical condition, the 100-km highway runs were simply not carried out, so he did not participate. And since 2013, records (age and absolute) are registered, regardless of the type of surface (highway, stadium or premises). So which of the two outstanding marathon runners is the fastest man in the world at a distance of 100 km? That's where the real intrigue is.
By the way, in 2007, one of the most famous writers in the world, Haruki Murakami, published a book on long-distance running. In one of the chapters of his autobiographical essay, “What I Talk About When I Talk About Running,” he talks about the same hundred-kilometer ultramarathon around Lake Saroma.
10th place:
- The daily run, or 24-hour run, was faster than anyone else, the Greek athlete Janis Kuros, covering 303 km and 506 m at the Adelaide stadium (Australia) on October 4-5, 1998. During his career, he managed to break the world records in super marathons so many times that it’s easy to lose count. In the daily marathon on the highway at the competitions in Basel (Switzerland) on May 4-5, 1997, his result was 290 km 221 m. The average speed of the fastest man in the world in daily running is 12.37 km / h.
Janis is the owner of 24 gold medals in running for extra long distances. At the 1984 6-day marathon in New York, he broke 16 world records at once, which have been held for almost 100 years (since 1888). The fastest man in the world at a distance of over 303 km in 24 hours estimates his record "for centuries" and believes that no one can beat him for a long time.