It’s been 13 years since Usain Bolt set the lads’s 100m and 200m world data on the 2009 World Athletics Championships in Berlin, Germany.

Since then, the occasions of 9.58 and 19.19 seconds have been out of attain of each sprinter who has tried to get near them, with the nice Jamaican occurring to achieve legendary standing throughout the sport of athletics.

Nonetheless, with final yr’s World Athletics Championships seeing USA sweeps in each of the dash distances, the American group are in scorching type and hankering for the type of occasions that will see them problem and maybe even surpass the dash world data which have stood for nicely over a decade.

Not like within the time of Bolt who flourished over 100m and 200m, the US dash group has extra specialists of their ranks, with the likes of Fred Kerley and Trayvon Bromell making the 100m distance their very own, and Noah Lyles, Erriyon Knighton and Michael Norman excelling over the half-lap race.

However simply how shut are these fast Individuals to the occasions of Bolt? And which ones has the best likelihood of breaking his world data? Discover out all the pieces it is advisable know under.

The race for the 100m world report: How do as we speak’s US sprinters stack up in opposition to Usain Bolt?

Whereas Bolt occupies the highest three locations on the record of fastest-ever 100m occasions, three present American sprinters sit joint fifteenth on the record with occasions of 9.76 seconds – Fred Kerley, Trayvon Bromell and Christian Coleman.

With a number of marks within the prime 15 set by the identical athletes, these three Individuals are the joint-sixth quickest males to have ever raced the blue ribband dash occasion.

Bolt has set 3 times below 9.70 seconds, with 9.58, 9.63 and 9.69. The one different males to have dipped throughout the road in sub-9.70 are Tyson Homosexual of the USA and Yohan Blake of Jamaica in 2009 and 2012, respectively.

The quickest occasions of Kerley, Coleman and Bromell are all on par with Bolt’s fifth-fastest mark within the occasion, leaving them 0.18 seconds away from the world report.

Nonetheless, whereas it might appear to be there’s a mountain to climb for any of them to achieve 9.58, it’s the type of Kerley that’s most spectacular a yr out from the Olympic Video games Paris 2024.

Each one of many reigning world champion’s prime 10 occasions have been set since 2021 – the yr wherein he switched from the 400m to the shorter sprinting distances.

Three of his occasions would even have made it into Bolt’s prime 10, in comparison with two of his teammate Bromell’s.

Kerley can also be bullish about his possibilities of breaking the world report, telling The Unbiased: “It’s very reasonable. All the pieces is reasonable; Bolt, Wayde [Van Niekerk], and the entire American greats. They put the bar up there for us to do it.”

Compared to Kerley, Bromell has been within the recreation for for much longer, but his races are solely getting sooner.

Whereas he set his fifth-fastest time again in 2015, his prime 4 occasions have all been since 2021.

Whether or not both of those two can shut on Bolt stays to be seen. However one factor’s for positive, the US 100m group is near as robust as ever.

The primary American challengers for Usain Bolt’s 200m world report

If the lads’s 100m panorama is dominated by Staff USA, the present crop of 200m runners are about as thrilling because it will get.

Simply final yr, 25-year-old Noah Lyles set the fourth-fastest time in historical past, with the brand new American report of 19.31 simply 0.12 seconds off Bolt’s quickest time of 19.19.

With the Jamaican occupying two of the highest 4 spots on the all-time record, this mark additionally makes Lyles the third-fastest 200m runner ever.

The fifth-fastest 200m runner in historical past (with the Tenth-fastest time) is none aside from Erriyon Knighton, who at 19 years outdated continues to be racing within the junior classes.

Whereas the 19.49 Knighton ran in early 2022 has not but been ratified, he has already damaged the under-18 and under-20 world data within the 200m, each of which belonged to Usain Bolt.

Lyles has eight occasions that will have made it into Bolt’s prime 10, with seven of these set in since 2021.

Added to this, each Lyles and Knighton have now medalled on the world stage, with two World Championship golds for the previous (Doha 2019, Oregon 2022) and one bronze for his younger rival (Oregon 2022).

Lyles even expressed his disappointment at not breaking Bolt’s quickest 200m time eventually yr’s World Championships closing, saying: “I used to be working to interrupt the world report, so if something you possibly can say I used to be somewhat upset,” whereas Knighton instructed Olympics.com confidently that he believes “sub-19” is in his future.

Nonetheless, there’s one other proficient athlete who may additionally enter the dialog, though he’s higher recognized proper now as a 400m specialist: Michael Norman.

At 25 years outdated, Norman is identical age as Lyles, and his report throughout the dash distances is spectacular.

One among solely three males to have posted a sub 10-second 100m, sub 20-second 200m and sub 44-second 400m, Norman has a PB of 19.70 over the half-lap distance.

Ought to he, like Kerley earlier than him, resolve to pay attention totally on the shorter sprints, the reigning 400m world champion has the pace to problem one of the best on this planet as we speak.