Tyson Gay ran the fastest 100m in history under any conditions Sunday, sprinting 9.68 seconds with a stiff tailwind behind him to win the 100m at the U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials.
The wind reading of 4.1 meters per second more than doubled the allowable limit for records purposes. Florida State’s Walter Dix finished second in 9.80, and the surprising Darvis Patton was third in 9.84 seconds. Overall, six of the eight runners in the final broke the 10-second barrier.
“My expectations are huge going into the Olympics,” Gay said.
Collegiate record holder Travis Padgett, fourth in 9.85, was impressed with Gay’s time with or without the wind.
“It doesn’t matter if there is a 4.1 wind behind me,” Padgett said. “If you can still run a 9.68 I think that’s great. I think there’s a lot of people out here that have that kind of wind and still can’t run that fast.”
The winning time broke the previous all-conditions record of 9.69 set by Obadele Thompson in 1996, coming a day after Gay set the American record of 9.77 in his quarterfinal heat.
Gay said he was “a little bit fatigued” after winning his morning semifinal in dominating fashion, but came back in the 5 o’clock final to win convincingly once again.
As the time appeared on Hayward Field’s videoboard, he hugged Dix in congratulations as the more than 20,000 in attendance jumped to their feet.
Running in the 9.6-seconds range was confirmation of coach Jon Drummond’s goals for him, Gay said later, adding that the illegal wind didn’t faze him.
“You can feel the wind,” Gay said. “I’ve been running long enough to know when it’s more than 2.0 (meters per second).”
Amid the circus around Gay, Dix and Patton ran to their first respective Olympic teams as well. All three are possibilities to be chosen for the U.S. 4x100m relay team in Beijing.
Dix’s collegiate career came to an apex last year when he won the 100, 200 and 4x100m at the NCAA championships, the first time an individual had done that since 1969. This year, he won the NCAA 200m despite a hurt hamstring, but was relegated to fourth in the 100m.
Now he’s in the Olympics.
“I knew I was going to run a fast time,” said Dix, whose 9.96 in the preliminaries Saturday was the fastest in first-round history at a Trials since Carl Lewis in 1984.
Patton, 31, was fourth in the 2004 Trials 200m race but took silver as part of the 4x100m team in Athens. He said “disbelief” with his time after coming into the Trials with a personal best of 10.00.
“If you would have blinked you would’ve missed it,” he said.
Asked if the blazing times in the final would send a message to Jamaicans Usain Bolt and Asafa Powell, the current and former100m world record holders, Patton thought so.
“I wouldn’t call it a rivalry right now, but I think it’s going to shake the world up a little bit. It’ll make a little noise, I think,” Patton said.
Gay, meanwhile, downplayed how he stacks up with Bolt.
“When we go in to the next big races and meet up, he’s still going to be the world record holder regardless,” Gay said.
The stress of running the fastest time ever took a toll on his body, Gay said, enduring cramps in his legs during his victory lap around Hayward Field. He’ll have until Friday to recover for the beginning of the 200m preliminaries.
“I can only celebrate for today,” he said.
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