BLOWING IN THE WIND
Simeon Williamson was always likely to be Britain’s next good, if not great sprinter. And after three years of minor triumph and tribulation, Williamson finally got the major victory he sought, when he won the UK 100 metres title last Saturday in 10.05sec, into a 1.8 metres per second headwind no less; comprehensively despatching Dwain Chambers into the bargain.
No disrespect to Craig Pickering, Williamson’s rival throughout their teenage years and early twenties, but no matter how much some sections of the press and public may devoutly wish it, the likelihood of a white sprinter breaking the ten second barrier and bursting into the ranks of the truly fast men is about as remote as sometime novellist and former 9.6sec 100 yards man, Jeffrey Archer winning the Nobel Prize for Literature.
In 2005, Pickering beat Williamson to the Euro junior title, but Williamson reversed those positions two years ago in the Euro Under 23 champs, clocking 10.10sec. Williamson also won the Universiade title in 2007. He improved his best to 10.03sec in the UK Champs last year, when he finished second to Chambers. But an injury marred his Olympic preparation, and he went out in the second round in Beijing; he was also part of the quartet which was DQ’d in the sprint relay qualifiers, for dropping the baton. But his dominating performance in Birmingham on Saturday should be ample compensation.
Among the BBCTV commentators refecting on Williamson’s victory, it was no surprise that former sprint hurdler (and ex-world record holder) Colin Jackson was the one who grasped the full import of 10.05sec into a 1.8mps headwind. Steve Cram’s glee at Williamson’s victory probably had more to do with the fact that he beat Chambers. Cram’s repeated vilifications of Chambers in his Guardian column/blog suggest something akin to a vendetta, an opinion shared by every one of the thirty or so respondents to the latest venting of Cram’s spleen about Chambers three weeks ago.
But, after a night’s reflection, Jackson came up with something equally questionable. Williamson’s run, said Jacko, “is the best 100 metres I’ve seen by a British athlete, regardless of all our superstars in the past”. Now, my memory is not as good as it used to be; then again, I am around 20 years older than Jackson. But even I recall Allan Wells and Linford Christie winning the Olympic 100 metres title; and the history books and Chariots of Fire have conspired to convince me that Harold Abrahams pulled off the same trick in 1924. OK, Abrahams and Wells never ran as fast as Williamson, but Jackson’s considered opinion may be a dig at his former pal Christie. The pair had a major falling out a decade ago, and it seems this rift still hasn’t been bridged. New UK Head Coach, Charles van Commenee was far more measured when he observed of Williamson’s run, “An outstanding performance; it brings him into a totally different bracket internationally”.
Williamson, a bright and personable 23 year old was dismissive of suggestions that his time was worth low 9.90s or even in the 9.80s, saying, “I don’t look at the wind, I look at the time, the time’s the facts”.
Nevertheless, headwind or tailwind is always mentioned in sprint performances, with corresponding ‘better or worse’ appended. For example, most people would suggest that Usain Bolt’s 19.59sec, the fourth fastest 200 metres in history, in a downpour and into a 0.9mps headwind in Lausanne last Tuesday was worth somewhat faster. But what exactly?
When wind-speed was first examined, by a team of scientists from the German federation in 1936, they recommended to that year’s IAAF Congress that 0.7mps should be the maximum permissable tailwind for a straight sprint, and 1.0mps for a bend race. Otherwise, the time would be affected. It seems that the IAAF arbitrarily (more than) doubled that estimate for record purposes.
And here’s an abstract from a 1994 study by Nick Linthorne of the UK’s Brunel University, carried out when he was temporarily based in very windy Perth, Australia.
‘I conducted a study of the effect of wind on 100m sprinters using competition performances published in athletics magazines. (For this experimental study, the data already existed). The study showed that the advantage of a 2.0 m/s tailwind (the legal limit for recognition of records) is about 0.10 seconds. Also, the disadvantage of a headwind was found to be greater than the advantage of a tailwind of the same magnitude’
That last sentence is most interesting, since it would seem to equate to the rule of thumb that most tracksters apply nowadays, ie that a metre per second, fore or aft, equates to a tenth plus or minus. According to Linthorpe, the disadvantage of the headwind is likely to be the more accurate. By that estimate, Bolt’s time was close to 19.50sec, and Williamson might indeed have broken 9.90sec.
But Williamson is bright enough to know that that will count for little when he lines up against Bolt in the Golden League 100 metres in Paris this Friday (if indeed, he’s in the A race). Like in the world champs in Berlin in a month’s time, it’s the placing that’s more important. As Asafa Powell knows to his cost, it’s medals that really count. Times are only a talking point.
Which is where we came in….
