Justin Gatlin loses his 100 metres record because, apparently, there was a statisticial error.

CNNSI reports:

Gatlin was timed at 9.76secs at an IAAF GP meeting in Doha on May 12, a mark one-hundredths of a second faster than the existing best set by Asafa Powell in 2005.

But the IAAF said that the actual timing for the American was 9.766seconds which should have been rounded up to 9.77.

Asafa Powell, whose record Gatlin broke, had said back then that the record was only on loan.

I am sure even he didn’t anticipate getting it back so early!

Maybe a record shouldn’t be conferred before it has been statistically verified if the difference is close enough to cause an impact. At least a ridiculous situation like right now for Gatlin can be avoided thus.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 17th, 2006 at 5:41 pm and is filed under Athletics, World Records. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.