Bolt Runs 9.58 Over 100m, Still the World Record

At the 2009 World Championships in Berlin, Usain Bolt ran the 100m in 9.58 seconds. It was the largest single drop of the electronic-timing era. It remains the world record.

One race, the biggest leap the clock has recorded

The final was staged on 16 August 2009 in the Olympiastadion. Bolt lowered the world record by a margin no sprinter had matched since electronic timing began. The result stood clear of the field.

The mark he beat was his own. He had already brought the record under ten seconds, and in Berlin he pushed it far lower still. The time has not been approached since by any other runner.

Berlin set a bar that Bolt spent a decade defending

Four days later, on the same track, he ran 19.19 over 200m. That gave him both sprint world records at once. Both still stand today.

The Berlin double opened the most decorated run in sprinting. He went on to eight Olympic golds and eleven world titles. Sprint triples followed at the Worlds in 2009, 2013 and 2015.

Some of the later wins tested him harder. At Moscow in 2013 he anchored Jamaica to relay gold for his eighth world title, equalling a mark shared by Carl Lewis, Michael Johnson and Allyson Felix. At Rio in 2016 he took a third straight Olympic 200m crown, a feat no other sprinter has managed.

In Beijing in 2015 the margins narrowed further. He took the 100m world title in 9.79, beating Justin Gatlin by 0.01 seconds after an injury-hit season. It was proof that the man behind the record could still win when the clock was no longer on his side.

The 9.58 sits above all of it. Long after his final race, the number in the record book is still his.