Parrot23 said:
I have Bolt at 10.03 in '07 (IAAF site), which is a little unreal to begin with (ie. for a "first" attempt). Very hard to find anything for earlier years. Know he didn't race 100m a lot, but there have to be times (it's not like in high school someone diligently sticks to 200 only and never does the double: everyone is always doing it). I did.
Anyone have the 100m numbers for earlier?
That one in 2007 was the first time he'd run 100m in a proper competition (since he was about twelve years old). It was also the only 100m he did in 2007.
He'd been trying to persuade his coach to let him have a go at it as he wanted to be a 100/200 runner rather than 200/400 runner he was a junior (he doesn't seem to like the 400m training too much). His coach let him do it as a reward for breaking the Jamaican record for 200m.
It's funny that people think he's suddenly come out of nowhere in the last two years. The athletics media have been talking about him like he's the Messiah since he was 15. He was a complete phenomenom at 200m at junior level - shattering all the records by miles. He was tipped for a World Championship medal when he was 16 (in the end he was ill and didn't compete - and then he had injury problems in 2004/5).
The guy's a complete freak (in a nice way) and it's a joy to see him compete. It's a shame some people are so ingrained in their agenda not to see what a brilliant athlete he is.
(And Jamaica have improved in the last five or six years because they've finally got some good coaches of their own - rather than sending their talent off to the US college system to be run into the ground. They've always had the best genetics).