News31 Dec 2021


2021 review: sprints

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Lamont Marcell Jacobs wins 100m gold at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games (© Getty Images)

As the year draws to a close, we look back at the key moments of 2021 in each area of the sport.

Having covered all of the other event groups, the series concludes with a review of the sprints.

 

Women’s 100m

Season top list

10.54 Elaine Thompson-Herah 🇯🇲 JAM Eugene 21 August
10.60 Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryc e🇯🇲 JAM Lausanne 26 August
10.72 Sha'Carri Richardson 🇺🇸 USA Miramar 10 April
10.76 Shericka Jackson 🇯🇲 JAM Tokyo 31 July
10.78 Marie-Josee Ta Lou 🇨🇮 CIV Tokyo 30 July

Full season top list
Full indoor season top list (60m)

World Athletics rankings

1 Elaine Thompson-Herah 🇯🇲 JAM 1514
2 Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryc e🇯🇲 JAM 1464
3 Shericka Jackson 🇯🇲 JAM 1413
4 Marie-Josee Ta Lou 🇨🇮 CIV 1397
5 Dina Asher-Smith 🇬🇧 GBR 1375

Full rankings

Olympic medallists

🥇 Elaine Thompson-Herah 🇯🇲 JAM 10.61 OR
🥈 Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryc e🇯🇲 JAM 10.74
🥉 Shericka Jackson 🇯🇲 JAM 10.76 PB
  Full results


Major winners

Olympic Games: Elaine Thompson-Herah 🇯🇲 JAM 10.61
Wanda Diamond League: Elaine Thompson-Herah 🇯🇲 JAM 10.65
European Indoor Championships (60m): Ajla Del Ponte 🇨🇭 SUI 7.03
South American Championships: Vitoria Cristina Rosa 🇧🇷 BRA 11.31
World U20 Championships: Tina Clayton 🇯🇲 JAM 11.09


Season at a glance

The world record remained intact – just – but 2021 will still go down as one of the greatest years in history for the women’s 100m.

Sub-10.70 times – which had previously occurred roughly once a decade – became almost commonplace with Jamaican stars Elaine Thompson-Herah and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce racking up six such performances between them.

The likes of Sha’Carri Richardson, Shericka Jackson and Marie-Josee Ta Lou added further strength in depth on the 2021 world list. The five fastest women in the world this year produced an incredible 22 sub-10.80 performances between them – more than double the previous record figure (10, 1998).

And the record depth in the event makes Thompson-Herah’s dominance all the more impressive.

The 29-year-old won all but two of her 100m races this year and maintained a remarkable level of performance throughout the season. She ran a windy 10.76 and a wind-legal 10.78 in early May, improved her season’s best to 10.71 in Szekesfehervar in July, then retained her Olympic title in a Games record of 10.61.

After the Olympics, she won at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Eugene in a world-leading 10.54, moving her to second on the world all-time list and putting her within 0.05 of the long-standing world record.


Five days later, Fraser-Pryce responded with a 10.60 victory in Lausanne where Thompson-Herah finished second in 10.64 – the first time two women had gone sub-10.70 in one race. But Thompson-Herah rounded out her season with wins in Paris (10.72) and Zurich (10.65), ending the year as the undisputed world No.1.

Fraser-Pryce, for her part, also produced one of the greatest 100m seasons in history, but she was beaten to the title in Tokyo, taking silver in 10.74, and formed part of a Jamaican sweep of the medals with Jackson earning the bronze in 10.76.

Beyond the clear Jamaican dominance of the event this year, Swiss sprinters were also to the fore in 2021 with Ajla del Ponte and Mujinga Kambundji both setting national records and placing fifth and sixth respectively in the Olympic final.

Del Ponte, who ended the season as the Swiss record-holder with 10.90, had hinted that something special was on the cards during the indoor season when she won the European indoor 60m title in a world-leading 7.03.

Richardson turned heads during the first half of the season, clocking a PB of 10.72 and winning the US title, but a positive test for cannabis meant she was unable to take her place on the US team for the Olympics. She raced twice at the end of the season, but didn’t break 11.10.

While she remained the fastest US woman of the year, Teahna Daniels was the top US performer over 100m at the Olympics, finishing seventh in the final, while Javianne Oliver – winner of the 60m during the World Indoor Tour – was the highest-placed US woman in the 100m world rankings.

But when it comes to the event as a whole, 2021 will best be remembered for its record depth – 10 women running 10.89 or faster, 21 women breaking 11 seconds, 100 women running 11.24 or faster – and for six of the 11 fastest times in history. And, above all, the remarkable performances of Thompson-Herah.

 

Men’s 100m

Season top list

9.76 Trayvon Bromell 🇺🇸 USA Nairobi 18 September
9.77 Ferdinand Omanyala 🇰🇪 KEN Nairobi 18 September
9.80 Marcell Jacobs 🇮🇹 ITA Tokyo 1 August
9.83 Su Bingtian 🇨🇳 CHN Tokyo 1 August
9.83 Ronnie Baker 🇺🇸 USA Tokyo 1 August

Full season top list
Full indoor season top list (60m)

World Athletics rankings

1 Fred Kerley 🇺🇸 USA 1457
2 Andre De Grasse 🇨🇦 CAN 1432
3 Ronnie Baker 🇺🇸 USA 1425
4 Marcell Jacobs 🇮🇹 ITA 1423
5 Akani Simbine 🇿🇦 RSA 1405

Full rankings

Olympic medallists

🥇 Marcell Jacobs 🇮🇹 ITA 9.80 AR
🥈 Fred Kerley 🇺🇸 USA 9.84 PB
🥉 Andre De Grasse 🇨🇦 CAN 9.89 PB
  Full results


Major winners

Olympic Games: Marcell Jacobs 🇮🇹 ITA 9.80
Wanda Diamond League: Fred Kerley 🇺🇸 USA 9.87
European Indoor Championships (60m): Marcell Jacobs 🇮🇹 ITA 6.47
South American Championships: Felipe Bardi dos Santos 🇧🇷 BRA 10.10w
World U20 Championships: Letsile Tebogo 🇧🇼 BOT 10.19


Season at a glance

It’s not often that the men’s 100m is as wide-open an event as it has been in 2021.

So much so, whichever of the eight men in the Olympic 100m final had crossed the line first, they would have been considered as something of a surprise winner.

But in the end, it was Italy’s Marcell Jacobs who took the gold medal in a European record of 9.80 – the third-fastest winning time in Olympic history, behind Usain Bolt’s 2008 and 2012 victories.

Prior to this year, Jacobs had spent most of his career battling a knee injury while also focusing on the long jump. Finally over the knee troubles, and having dropped the long jump to focus solely on sprinting, he enjoyed a breakthrough during the indoor season, culminating in winning the European indoor title in a world-leading 6.47. That momentum continued outdoors as he broke the Italian 100m record in his first race of the year with 9.95. And as he had done indoors, he timed his peak to perfection outdoors to win the Olympic title.

USA’s Fred Kerley – who, up until this year, had been a 400m specialist – secured silver in a PB of 9.84, and Canada’s Andre De Grasse earned a second successive Olympic bronze over 100m with a PB of 9.89.

For the fourth Olympic final in a row, the first six men finished inside 10 seconds. China’s Su Bingtian and USA’s Ronnie Baker had clocked 9.83 in the semifinals (an Asian record for the former) to finish 0.01 ahead of Jacobs, yet both finished outside of the medals in the final. And South Africa’s Akani Simbine, just as he had done at the 2019 World Championships, finished fourth in 9.93.

But they could at least take some consolation from reaching the final. USA’s Trayvon Bromell, who impressed with world-leading runs of 9.88 and 9.77 at the start of the outdoor season and 9.76 at the end of the season, didn’t make it beyond the semifinals in Tokyo. Kenya’s Ferdinand Omanyala, who set an African record of 9.77 behind Bromell in Nairobi in September, also narrowly missed the Olympic final. Both men, however, entered the top 10 on the world all-time list.


Jacobs, like several Olympic champions, opted not to compete after the Games. In his absence, De Grasse won at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Eugene with a wind-assisted 9.74, while Kerley won in Brussels (9.94) and at the Diamond League final in Zurich (9.87), both of which contributed to his No.1 position in the world rankings.

The depth in the men’s 100m this year was as good as it ever has been as a record number of 11 men broke 9.90, while 28 men ran 10.00 or faster – equalling the record tally set in 2015. Continental records were also set for three of the six areas: Africa (Omanyala, 9.77), Europe (Jacobs, 9.80) and Asia (Su, 9.83).

 

Women’s 200m

Season top list

21.53 Elaine Thompson-Herah 🇯🇲 JAM Tokyo 3 August
21.61 Gabby Thomas 🇺🇸 USA Eugene 26 June
21.78 Christine Mboma 🇳🇦 NAM Zurich 9 September
21.79 Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce 🇯🇲 JAM Kingston 27 June
21.81 Shericka Jackson 🇯🇲 JAM Zurich 9 September

Full season top list
Full indoor season top list


World Athletics rankings

1 Christine Mboma 🇳🇦 NAM 1455
2 Shericka Jackson 🇯🇲 JAM 1407
3 Elaine Thompson-Herah 🇯🇲 JAM 1406
4 Gabby Thomas 🇺🇸 USA 1404
5 Dina Asher-Smith 🇬🇧 GBR 1398

Full rankings


Olympic medallists

🥇 Elaine Thompson-Herah 🇯🇲 JAM 21.53 NR
🥈 Christine Mboma 🇳🇦 NAM 21.81 WU20R
🥉 Gabby Thomas 🇺🇸 USA 21.87
  Full results


Major winners

Olympic Games: Elaine Thompson-Herah 🇯🇲 JAM 21.53
Wanda Diamond League: Christine Mboma 🇳🇦 NAM 21.78
South American Championships: Vitoria Cristina Rosa 🇧🇷 BRA 23.10
World U20 Championships: Christine Mboma 🇳🇦 NAM 21.84

Season at a glance

The story in this event is similar to the 100m: record depth on the world lists in a year in which Elaine Thompson-Herah emerged as the No.1 performer.

The Jamaican raced more frequently over 100m than the 200m this year, but headed to the Olympics with a 22.02 season’s best and a victory at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Gateshead. Having won the 100m in Tokyo, she tried to conserve her energy for the first two rounds of the 200m, both held on 2 August, but almost eased off too much in the heats.

She made no such mistake in the semis, where she equalled her PB of 21.66, despite easing down. She went even faster in the final, winning gold in a Jamaican record of 21.53 to move to second on the world all-time list.


Namibian teenager Christine Mboma set a world U20 record of 21.81 to finish second in Tokyo, while Gabby Thomas – who won the US Trials in 21.61 – took bronze in 21.87. Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, who earlier in the year set a PB of 21.79 to win the Jamaican title, finished outside of the medals in Tokyo.

Before this year, there had been just one 200m race in which four women had broken 22 seconds. But it happened twice in 2021: first at the US Trials, and then again in the Olympic final. It’s little surprise, then, that the year as a whole had record depth.

For the first time ever, eight women broke the 22-second barrier in one year. Between them, they racked up 21 sub-22 performances – the highest ever tally for a single season. It means that this year’s performances account for almost 16% of all the sub-22-second performances in history.

Thompson-Herah didn’t compete over 200m after the Olympics. Mboma went on to dominate the big end-of-year races, winning at the World U20 Championships (21.84), the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Brussels (21.84), the Diamond League final (21.78) and the Continental Tour Gold meetings in Zagreb (22.04) and Nairobi (22.39).

Jamaica’s Shericka Jackson, now focusing on shorter sprints, made the mistake of easing down too much in her 200m heat in Tokyo, where she most likely would have been in the medal hunt. But she made amends at the Diamond League final in Zurich to finish second in a PB of 21.81.

Shaunae Miller-Uibo focused more on the 200m at the start of the season and went on to reach the Olympic final in the event, but then went on to retain her Olympic crown over 400m. World champion Dina Asher-Smith, meanwhile, battled with a mid-season injury and did not contest the event in Tokyo, but salvaged some good performances from the end of the season, including a 22.04 run in Brussels.

 

Men’s 200m

Season top list

19.52 Noah Lyles 🇺🇸 USA Eugene 21 August
19.62 Andre De Grasse 🇨🇦 CAN Tokyo 4 August
19.68 Kenny Bednarek 🇺🇸 USA Tokyo 4 August
19.76 Fred Kerley 🇺🇸 USA Nairobi 18 September
19.81 Terrance Laird 🇺🇸 USA Austin 27 March

Full season top list
Full indoor season top list


World Athletics rankings

1 Kenny Bednarek 🇺🇸 USA 1482
2 Andre De Grasse 🇨🇦 CAN 1466
3 Noah Lyles 🇺🇸 USA 1428
4 Fred Kerley 🇺🇸 USA 1398
5 Aaron Brown 🇨🇦 CAN 1364

Full rankings


Olympic medallists

🥇 Andre De Grasse 🇨🇦 CAN 19.62 NR
🥈 Kenny Bednarek 🇺🇸 USA 19.68 PB
🥉 Noah Lyles 🇺🇸 USA 19.74 =SB
  Full results


Major winners

Olympic Games: Andre De Grasse 🇨🇦 CAN 19.62
Wanda Diamond League: Kenny Bednarek 🇺🇸 USA 19.70
South American Championships: Felipe Bardi dos Santos 🇧🇷 BRA 20.49
World U20 Championships: Udodi Onwuzurike 🇳🇬 NGR 20.21


Season at a glance

As with the 100m, the men’s 200m has been fairly open this year with no single dominant performer. Instead, three men in particular have shared the spotlight: Olympic champion Andre De Grasse, world leader Noah Lyles, and world rankings No.1 Kenny Bednarek.

De Grasse, so often a medallist at major championships over the past six years, finally landed his first global title when winning at the Tokyo Olympics with a Canadian record of 19.62. But despite his win in the Japanese capital, he wasn’t dominant all year round, winning just three of his other six races.

Lyles, conversely, won all of his finals this year, apart from at the Olympic Games. And it’s not that he underperformed in Tokyo; he still equalled his season’s best of 19.74 to finish third. But, fuelled by his personal disappointment of not placing higher at the Olympics, he returned to action at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Eugene and clocked a world-leading 19.52.


Bednarek, still a relative newcomer on the international scene, was perhaps the most consistent performer in the men’s 200m this year. He broke 20 seconds on 13 occasions; the only races in which he didn’t finish inside that benchmark were the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Gateshead, held into a -3.0m/s headwind in heavy rain, and his first-round heats at the US Trials and Olympic Games. He finished first or second in all of his 200m races, set a PB of 19.68 to take silver at the Olympics, and ended his season with a 19.70 victory at the Diamond League final in Zurich.

Olympic 100m silver medallist Fred Kerley narrowly missed making the US Olympic team in the 200m, but ended his season with a wind-assisted 19.77 run in Lausanne, a 19.79 victory in Paris and a 19.76 PB to win in Nairobi.

Between them, those four men notched up 15 sub-19.80 clockings this year in all conditions (12 wind-legal) – comfortably the best ever tally for a single season. And this, in the post-Usain Bolt era.

There were several other notable performers over 200m this year, though.

World Athletics Rising Star Erriyon Knighton, who turned 17 at the start of the year, started the year by breaking Bolt’s world U18 best, then he broke the Jamaican superstar’s world U20 record at the US Trials, first with 19.88 and then with 19.84 to book his place on the US team for Tokyo. Despite being an U20 for two more full years, Knighton went on to finish fourth at the Olympics.

USA’s Terrance Laird and Liberia’s Joseph Fahnbulleh were the top performers on the US collegiate circuit. Laird clocked a PB of 19.81 back in March but then missed out on making the US team for Tokyo, while fast-finishing Fahnbulleh pipped Laird to the NCAA title in 19.91 and went on to finish fifth in the Olympic final.

 

Women’s 400m

Season top list

48.36 Shaunae Miller-Uibo 🇧🇸 BAH Tokyo 6 August
49.20 Marileidy Paulino 🇩🇴 DOM Tokyo 6 August
49.22 Christine Mboma 🇳🇦 NAM Windhoek 17 April
49.34 Stephenie Ann McPherson 🇯🇲 JAM Tokyo 4 August
49.46 Allyson Felix 🇺🇸 USA Tokyo 6 August

Full season top list
Full indoor season top list


World Athletics rankings

1 Marileidy Paulino 🇩🇴 DOM 1425
2 Shaunae Miller-Uibo 🇧🇸 BAH 1404
3 Stephenie Ann McPherson 🇯🇲 JAM 1388
4 Quanera Hayes 🇺🇸 USA 1360
5 Allyson Felix 🇺🇸 USA 1343

Full rankings


Olympic medallists

🥇 Shaunae Miller-Uibo 🇧🇸 BAH 48.36 AR
🥈 Marileidy Paulino 🇩🇴 DOM 49.20 NR
🥉 Allyson Felix 🇺🇸 USA 49.46 SB
  Full results


Major winners

Olympic Games: Shaunae Miller-Uibo 🇧🇸 BAH 48.36
Wanda Diamond League: Quanera Hayes 🇺🇸 USA 49.88
European Indoor Championships: Femke Bol 🇳🇱 NED 50.63
South American Championships: Tiffani Marinho 🇧🇷 BRA 52.65
World U20 Championships: Imaobong Nse Uko 🇳🇬 NGR 51.55


Season at a glance

To think: Shaunae Miller-Uibo very nearly didn’t enter the 400m at the Olympic Games.

For the first half of the season, the Bahamian sprinter insisted that the 200m would be her focus in 2021 as she already had an Olympic gold medal over 400m, her specialist event, and she wanted to win a second one in a different event.

But as the season progressed, Miller-Uibo’s form seemed to suggest that the one-lap event would offer her the best chance of winning an Olympic title. She clocked a world-leading national record of 50.21 indoors in February, then two months later ran an outdoor world-leading 49.08 in Eugene, breaking the stadium record at the prestigious Hayward Field.

She entered both events in Tokyo and reached the 200m final, but, as expected, it was the 400m in which she excelled. She won by almost a full second in 48.36, breaking her own continental record by 0.01.


Marileidy Paulino of the Dominican Republic enjoyed a remarkable breakthrough this year. A former 100m and 200m specialist, the 25-year-old set five national 400m records in 2021, culminating with her silver-medal-winning 49.20 in Tokyo. Outside of the Olympics, she won 11 of her 12 races, including the Wanda Diamond League stops in Lausanne and Paris. She ended the year in the No.1 position in the world rankings.

Eleven years Paulino’s senior, US sprint legend Allyson Felix earned yet another global medal when taking bronze in Tokyo. The 35-year-old ran a season’s best of 49.46 – the fastest ever time by anyone over the age of 35.

Felix’s compatriot Quanera Hayes, who also recently returned from a maternity break, won the US title in 49.78 but placed just seventh in the Olympic final in 50.88. She rebounded later in the year, though, winning the Diamond League final in 49.88.

Jamaica’s strong 400m form continued this year. Stephenie Ann McPherson (49.34) and Candice McLeod (49.51) both set PBs in the Olympic semifinals but were slightly down on those times in the final and narrowly missed out on the medals, finishing fourth and fifth respectively.

Athing Mu, the Olympic champion over 800m, enjoyed a solid campaign over one lap of the track, topped by her North American U20 record of 49.57 to win the NCAA title. After then, though, she focused exclusively on the longer event.

As was the case in most of the other sprinting events this year, there was unprecedented depth in the women’s 400m as a record number of 12 women broke 50 seconds and 111 women ran faster than 52 seconds.

 

Men’s 400m

Season top list

43.85 Steven Gardiner 🇧🇸 BAH Tokyo 5 August
43.85 Randolph Ross 🇺🇸 USA Eugene 11 June
43.88 Kirani James 🇬🇩 GRN Tokyo 2 August
43.93 Anthony Jose Zambrano 🇨🇴 COL Tokyo 2 August
44.03 Michael Cherry 🇺🇸 USA Brussels 3 September

Full season top list
Full indoor season top list


World Athletics rankings

1 Kirani James 🇬🇩 GRN 1427
2 Michael Cherry 🇺🇸 USA 1415
3 Anthony Jose Zambrano 🇨🇴 COL 1408
4 Michael Norman 🇺🇸 USA 1392
5 Steven Gardiner 🇧🇸 BAH 1379

Full rankings


Olympic medallists

🥇 Steven Gardiner 🇧🇸 BAH 43.85 WL
🥈 Anthony Jose Zambrano 🇨🇴 COL 44.08
🥉 Kirani James 🇬🇩 GRN 44.19
  Full results

 
Major winners

Olympic Games: Steven Gardiner 🇧🇸 BAH 43.85
Wanda Diamond League: Michael Cherry 🇺🇸 USA 44.41
European Indoor Championships: Oscar Husillos 🇪🇸 ESP 46.22
South American Championships: Kelvis Padrino 🇻🇪 VEN 45.82
World U20 Championships: Anthony Pesela 🇧🇼 BOT 44.58


Season at a glance

Steven Gardiner once again timed his season to perfection.

The Bahamian sprinter may not be the type to run blazing times all year round, like some of his US rivals, but you can count on him to produce his best when it matters most.

Aside from a race in Fort Worth where he lost his footing and fell on the home straight, Gardiner won all of his 400m races in 2021. He opened with 44.71 back in April, improved to 44.52 to win the Bahamian title, then ran 44.47 to beat a quality field in Szekesfehervar.

He went on to win the Olympic title with relative ease, clocking a world-leading 43.85 to finish 0.23 ahead of Colombia’s Anthony Zambrano, replicating the 1-2 finish from the 2019 World Championships. Behind them, 2012 Olympic champion and 2016 silver medallist Kirani James completed his set of Olympic medals by taking bronze in 44.19.


Michael Cherry achieved remarkable consistency in 2021. From May onwards, he broke 45 seconds in all 14 of his races, including heats. He finished second at the US Trials in a PB of 44.35, improved that to 44.21 when finishing fourth at the Olympics – just 0.02 shy of a medal – and then won his last four races of the year, setting a PB of 44.03 and taking the Diamond League title in Zurich (44.41).

In terms of merit, Cherry was the top US performer this year over 400m. But Michael Norman won the US title in 44.07 and Randolph Ross ended the year with a share of the world lead, thanks to his 43.85 victory at the NCAA Championships.

Beyond the Olympic medallists, there were several notable breakthrough performers in the event this year. Noah Williams won the NCAA indoor title in 44.71, putting him fourth on the world indoor all-time list, and improved to 44.30 outdoors.

Bryce Deadmon also became a regular sub-45-second performer this year, as did Leimarvin Bonevacia, who reached the Olympic final and then set a Dutch record of 44.48 in Bern a couple of weeks after the Games.

There were impressive results at the age-group level, too, with Botswana’s Antony Pesela winning the world U20 title in 44.58 from Mexico’s Luis Aviles (44.95).

World Athletics

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