200m champions and records

The men’s 200m world record has proven to be one of the most difficult to break in the whole of track Athletics.
The oldest among the top ten times (see table below) is Pietro Mennea’s (Italy) world record of 19’’72, recorded in Mexico City in 1979. The record resisted until Michael Johnson (USA) run the distance in 19’’32 at the Atlanta 1996 Olympics. A 2% improvement in 17 years! Since then, another 12 years have passed before the record was at last improved again: by Usain Bolt (Jamaica) at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, by a 2 hundredths of a second margin. Altogether, a 2,1% improvement over the course of 29 years!
 
Top Ten results Men
Updated 3 October 2008.

Rank
Res.
 
Athlete
Nation
Date
Location
1.
19.30
 
Usain Bolt
 Jamaica
20 August 2008
Beijing
2.
19.32
 
Michael Johnson
 United States
1 August 1996
Atlanta
3.
19.58
 
Tyson Gay
 United States
30 May 2009
New York City
4.
19.63
 
Xavier Carter
 United States
11 July 2006
Lausanne
5.
19.65
 
Wallace Spearmon
 United States
28 September 2006
Daegu
6.
19.68
 
Frankie Fredericks
 Namibia
1 August 1996
Atlanta
7.
19.69
 
Walter Dix
 United States
26 May 2007
Gainesville
8.
19.72
 
Pietro Mennea
 Italy
12 September 1979
Mexico City
9.
19.73
 
Michael Marsh
 United States
5 August 1992
Barcelona
10.
19.75
 
Carl Lewis
 United States
19 June 1983
Indianapolis
 
Joe DeLoach
 United States
28 September 1988

TOP TEN RESULTS Women
Updated 3 October 2008

Rank
Res.
Wind
Athlete
Nation
Date
Location
1.
21.34
+1.3
Florence Griffith-Joyner
 United States
29 September 1988
Seoul
2.
21.62
−0.6
Marion Jones
 United States
11 September 1998
Johannesburg
3.
21.64
+0.8
Merlene Ottey
 Jamaica
13 September 1991
Brussels
4.
21.71
+0.7
Marita Koch
 East Germany
10 June 1979
Karl-Marx-Stadt
+1.2
Heike Drechsler
 East Germany
29 June 1986
Jena
6.
21.72
+1.3
Grace Jackson
 Jamaica
29 September 1988
Seoul
−0.1
Gwen Torrence
 United States
15 August 1992
Barcelona
8.
21.74
+0.4
Marlies Göhr
 East Germany
3 June 1984
Erfurt
+1.2
Silke Gladisch-Möller
 East Germany
3 September 1987
Rome
−0.6
Veronica Campbell-Brown
 Jamaica
21 August 2008

What about nations’ performance in the TOP TOURNAMENTS, the Olympic Games and the World Championships? The USA are dominant, but there are a few surprises, particularly among the ladies.
We’ve awarded GSN points to all medals winners in both tournaments (for the Olympics Games, since Paris 1900 for the men and London 1948 for the ladies; for the World Championships, since their first edition in 1983) and the rankings are as follows:
200m MEN:
1.      USA 496 pts
2.      Great Britain 76 pts
3.      Namibia 50 pts (all by one man, Frankie Fredericks!)
4.      Jamaica 42 pts
5.      Italy 32 pts
6.      Canada 26 pts
7.      Brazil 24 pts
8.      Trinidad & Tobago 22 pts
9.      Greece 20 pts
10. France 14 pts
11. Russia (USSR) 10 pts
12. Germany, Netherlands, Nigeria, Australia and Panama 6 pts each
 
200m LADIES:
1.      USA 166 pts
2.      Jamaica 136 pts
3.      Germany (also DDR) 102 pts
4.      Australia and Russia 54 pts
5.      Poland 24 pts
6.      France and Bahamas 22 pts
7.      Great Britain and Sri Lanka 20 pts
8.      Netherlands 18 pts
9.      Nigeria 6 pts
 
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the article “200m” at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/200m