Dumpster Dash

Tech athlete runs 400m in < 52 seconds

[LINK] GT AA

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Junior Ashlee Kidd clocked a personal-record time of 51.57 in the women's 400-meter dash, finishing fifth, to lead Georgia Tech at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships on Saturday.

400m in well under a minute! That's moving! She ran 400m (about 436 yards) in not much longer than a typical 200 yard Dumpster Dash lasts. She's run 200m in under 24 seconds.

Needless to say, we're not breaking any world records in the DD. But, there's a thin young guy named Daniels from Sudan at Twains (another Decatur pub with serious pool facilities) who looks like he can certainly take DD speeds to new lows. We're looking for a competitor for him in the 20-30 year-old range. How about Wes?

Women can run, and fast. So, why won't two women run each other in the Dumpster Dash?

Wes's girlfirend Isabelle, who works at Twains, did challenge "Dumpster Dave" to a race Friday, but he couldn't see anything positive coming out of that, regardless of who won.

Check out those muscles!

Georgia HS record for 100m is 10.41 seconds

[LINK] Columbus Ledger-Enquirer

The Green Bay Packers' Ahmad Carroll owns the fastest 100 time in the state. Carroll, who went to Douglass-Atlanta, ran the 100 in 10.41 in 2000.

The world record, just set on the 13th of this month, is 9.76 seconds.

Note the student-athlete pictured is wearing a shirt which says "I'm from Decatur, GA."

Only one 200m Dumpster Dash has been recorded thus far. It was a slow 43.61 seconds, but the runners were deliberately running very slow downhill, as part of their strategy.  Nobody (except maybe Tut, who ran out of steam) has attempted to run the Dumpster Dash flat out -- YET!  But Chip says he can, with no problem. We're all anxiously waiting to see that, and clock it.

Gatlin shaves 100m world record

[LINK] Qatar Globe & Mail

Doha, Qatar -- Olympic champion. World champion. Now, Justin Gatlin is the world record holder, too.

The American sprinter broke the 100-metre record yesterday with a time of 9.76 seconds at the Qatar Grand Prix. He shaved one-hundredth of a second off the mark of 9.77 seconds set by Jamaica's Asafa Powell on June 14, 2005, in Athens.

"This was a perfect race," Gatlin said. "I am a competitor and I promised I would get the world record and I have done it. I don't go for world records. They come to me."

The 24-year-old Gatlin won the 100 and 200 at the world championships in Helsinki last August.

Yesterday, Gatlin was quick out of the starting blocks and running even with Nigeria's Olusoji Fasuba for the first 50 metres. Only in the last 40 did Gatlin surge into the lead. Fasuba finished second in 9.84, an African record.

HISTORY

On April 23, 1921, Charles Paddock set the 100m world record at 10.4 seconds. Over the past 85 years, the time has dropped an average of .0075 seconds per year. Some part of that can be attributed to improved shoes and track.

Jim Hines broke the elusive 10 second barrier (once thought to be the natural human limit) twice in 1968. Hines broke the existing world record with a scintillating 9.99 seconds at the AAU Championships in Sacremento in June, and then ran 9.95 in the Olympic Final at the 1968 Mexico Olympics in October.