Ten Years Ago Today: Konstantinos Kenteris Captured the 200m Gold Medal at 2000 Sydney Olympic Games

It was ten years ago today Konstantinos Kenteris of Greece won the men’s 200m at Sydney Olympics. He clocked a time of 20.09s, beaten Darren Campbell (20.14) on the silver position. Ato Boldon, who won silver in 100m earlier, came third in 20.20s.

Kenteris was a 400m runner before switched to 200m during the outdoor season in 1999. At the 1999 World Championship in Seville, he had beaten Maurice Greene (who later became the world champion) in the R1 of 200m but withdrew the quarter finals due to injury.

During the 2000 Olympics, most people surprised when he managed to get a slot of the 200m final. Not like Maurice Greene who won the 100m final earlier, came to Sydney with an overwhelming prospect.

Early in the year, I had predicted the top three on the Olympics podium for 200m would be Michael Johnson, Maurice Greene and Frank Fredericks.

However, both American didn’t proceed due to hamstring injuries en route the 200m final at the U.S Olympics trials. About two weeks before the Olympics, Fredericks pulled out himself due to (ankle?) injury.

In the absence of the three  monsters, John Capel and Ato Boldon were the ones to watch. After the prelim rounds, QFs and SFs, John Capel seems to have a big chance to win, besides Ato Boldon was already run seven times (4 in 100m and 3 in 200m) and rather tired.

NOTE: The men’s 200m SF and Final were held at the same session, which was two hours interval not ONE DAY interval like today’s system. The men’s long jump final also held at the same time, Carl Lewis would get angry with the sort of schedule!

In the final, the field seems very close to each until the 150m mark where all of a sudden Kenteris took the lead and eventually leaving the field to emerge the Olympic champion.

John Capel, who won the U.S Olympic trails (19.85), unfortunately stumbled out of the blocks and finished eighth.

After the Olympics, Kenteris went to win two other major meets, the 2001 World Championship (20.03) and the 2002 European championship (19.85).

Video of 200m Final (Sydney Olympics and Edmonton World Championship)


Men's 200m Final
1, Konstantinos Kenteris, GRE, 20.09. 2, Darren Campbell, GBR, 20.14 3, Ato Boldon, TRI, 20.20. 4, Obadele Thompson, BAR, 20.20. 5, Christian Malcolm, GBR, 20.23. 6, Claudinei Silva, BRA, 20.28. 7, Coby Miller, USA, 20.35. 8, John Capel Jr, USA, 20.49.

SF 1: 1,John Capel Jr, USA, 20.10. 2, Christian Malcolm, GBR, 20.19. 3, Ato Boldon, TRI 20.20. 4, Obadele Thompson, BAR, 20.21. 5, Christopher Williams, JAM, 20.47. 6, Stephane Buckland, MRI, 20.56. 7, Francis Obikwelu, POR, 20.71. 8, Tommi Hartonen, FIN, 20.88.

SF 2: 1, Konstantinos Kenteris, GRE, 20.20. 2, Darren Campbell, GBR, 20.23. 3, Claudinei Silva, BRA, 20.30. 4, Coby Miller, USA, 20.45. 5, Kim Collins, SKN, 20.57. 6, Floyd Heard, USA, 20.63. 7, Koji Ito, JAP, 20.67. 8, Shingo Suetsugu, JAP, 20.69.

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How Fast Can Cristiano Ronaldo Run in the 100m?

Cristiano Ronaldo, a player who is reportedly worth 130 millions in USD has been said the fastest elite football player in the world.

It has been predicted that the Portuguese has a potential to run around 10.6s in the 100m. But some people have claimed he can do 10.5s. After that, they exaggerated the time to 10.3s and then lowered again to 10.2s. But those who don't know track and field or complete silly still believe that he could run as fast as the fastest man on the planet, Usain Bolt. Yikes..!

However, a study conducted by Germans in 2009 found that Cristiano Ronaldo reaches an average speed of 33.6 kph. They also indicated Manchester United’s Wayne Rooney and Arsenal’s Robin Van Persie had recorded 32.6kph and 32.1kph respectively, thus slower than Ronaldo.

Last time in a training session I had a flying 60m time recorded at 5.5s (FAT 5.74). This could be roughly translated to 0.9567s per 10 metres segments. Thus, my average speed in kilometer per hour (kph) was about 37.63.

My fastest time over 100m at the time was 10.6s.

Usain Bolt, at the 2009 World Championship in Berlin recorded 9.58s and reached a top speed on the 60-70m segment with +- 0.805s, therefore 44.72kph. His average speed for the distance of 60-80m was 44.72kph, as well (link).

How fast can Ronaldo run the 100m?

Take a look at a comparison. We had a research project (static vs. dynamic stretching...) in 2009 andcollected data for a flying 40 meters among junior sprinters. One of the sprinters has a PB of 11.17 in the 100m (but my project was held during off season) and he recorded a 4.29s (for dynamic stretching). This equates to about 33.57kph, exactly the same to Ronaldo’s average speed.

Though I'm unable to consider environment factors,will Ronaldo run a 11.17 or 10.9 in the 100m?


Update: Read latest article "Cristiano Ronaldo Will Not Run Sub 10s 100m"

Recommended reading:
Cristiano Ronaldo: Champion of the World
Cristiano Ronaldo - Moments
Cristiano Ronaldo (World Soccer Stars / Estrellas Del Futbol Mundial)
The Story of Real Madrid

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Mohd Elfi Mustapha

Name: Mohd Elfi Mustapha
Nationality: Singapore
Event: Sprints (100m)
Born: 4 November 1987
Height: 5-9
Weight: 70

Personal Best: 
100m 10.56 -0.4 Singapore (25 July 2010)
200m 22.42

Major Meets:
Asian Championships- Kobe 2011
World University Games- Shenzhen 2011

Career Highlights:
2010: Gold Medalist at 100m (10.59)  in the ASEAN University Games.

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Ten Years Ago Today: Maurice Greene Won Gold Medal at 2000 Sydney Olympics

It was ten years ago today Maurice Greene captured gold medal in the men's 100m final at 2000 Olympic Games at Sydney, Australia.

Greene who came to the Olympics as the world fastest man with 9.79 set a year before, crossed the line in 9.87 -0.3 ahead of training partner Ato Boldon 9.99 and Barbados' Obadeli Thompson 10.04.

A few days later he, along with teammates John Drummond, Bernard Williams, and Brian Lewis, won the 4x100 meter relay in 37.65.

Greene's 100m time still ranks among the top-10 on the all-time list. Usain Bolt holds the current WR in 9.58, second fastest is Tyson Gay in 9.69, followed by Asafa Powell (9.72) and Nesta Carter (9.78).

As of today, he is the only sprinter to hold the Indoor 60m (6.39) and 100m (9.79) WR at the same time. His 60m WR which set twice still stand.

Greene, who dominated the sprint century for at least six years during his prime time has 53 times sub 10s in the 100m which at the time was more than any other sprinter in history.

On February 2008, he announced his retirement from athletics following a spat of injuries which have derailed him since 2006.

AdrianSprints.com rated Maurice Greene one of the greatest sprinters of all time, no doubt along with Jesse Owens, Bob Hayes, Tommie Smith, Carl Lewis and Usain Bolt.


Maurice Greene R1, QF, SF and Final (Video)




Men's 100m Final Results (-0.3)

1 Maurice Greene (USA) 9.87
2 Ato Boldon (TRI) 9.99
3 Obadeli Thompson (BAR) 10.04
4 Dwain Chambers (GBR) 10.08
5 Jon Drummond (USA) 10.09
6 Darren Campbell (GBR) 10.13
7 Kim Collins (SKN) 10.17
DNF: Aziz Zakari (GHA)

Men's 100m SF 2
1, Maurice Greene (USA) 10.06s. 2, Jon Drummond (USA) 10.10s. 3, Ato Boldon (TRI) 10.13s. 4, Aziz Zakari (GHA) 10.16s. 5, Matt Shirvington (AUS) 10.2s6. 6, Aliu Deji (NGR) 10.32s. 7, Sunday Emmanuel (NGR) 10.45s. 8, Bruny Surin (CAN) 50.94s.

Men's 100m SF 1
1 Dwain Chambers (GBR) 10.14s. 2, Obadeli Thompson (BAR) 10.15s. 3, D Campbell (GBR) 10.19s. 4, Kim Collins (SKN) 10.20s. 5, L Myles-Mills (GHA) 10.25s. 6, Curtis Johnson (USA) 10.27. 7, Koji Ito (JAP) 10.39s. 8, Lindel Frater (JAM) 10.46s.

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72nd Singapore Open Track and Field Championship 2010, Results and Videos

The 72nd Singapore open track and field championship was held from 18-19 September 2010 at Gombak Stadium, Singapore. Following are the full results and videos from sprint events:

Results: Click here (Singapore Athletics)

Video of Men's 100m Final


Video of Women's 100m Final



Results and Videos Courtesy of Singapore Athletics

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