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World Points Standings:
Men’s Sprints

Posted June 11th, 2008 at 12:00 PM by Jesse Squire

Section: News & Results, Track & Field, Rankings, World Standings

Usain Bolt My rankings are being run on a pilot program this summer and I’m sharing them with the track community via The Final Sprint. Last year I did a trial run on just the men’s 100 meters and it correctly predicted the World Championships medalists in order, and then by the end of the summer readjusted to match Track & Field News’ world rankings nearly exactly.

The system is based on that of the IAAF’s World Athletics Tour standings, but with a few twists–most importantly, all kinds of meets are included in the standings and athletes can earn bonus points for fast times. At this early time in the season, athletes are given points for the results of their best four meets (one of which can be in a different event).

100 meters
1. Usain Bolt 46
2. Nesta Carter 42
2. Olusoji Fasuba 42
4. Kim Collins 38
4. Mike Rodgers 38
6. Darrel Brown 34
6. Tyson Gay 34
8. Derrick Atkins 32
8. Michael Frater 32
10. Ivory Williams 30

That Bolt is #1 should come as no surprise; he would be much further ahead if he had run in any of the biggest meets (Golden League or Super GP). Carter, the Berlin Golden League winner, is tied with World Indoor champ Fasuba. Gay’s relatively low ranking is partly due to having only run two 100m races yet this year.

200 meters
1. LaShawn Merritt 62
2. Joel Brown 42
3. Brendan Christian 40
3. Wallace Spearmon 40
5. Tyson Gay 35
6. Marlon Devonish 30
7. Christopher Williams 28
7. Xavier Carter 28
9. Daniel Batman 23
10. Clement Campbell 22

It might be surprising to see 400 hotshot Merritt atop the rankings with hurdler Brown right behind. They both picked up big points in early May in Doha’s Super GP meet and also scored well in the one meet allowed for their secondary event; Merritt also ran a very good 19.80w in a small meet in North Carolina. Spearmon and Gay are probably the two best 200m men in the world and will move up the standings fairly quickly as the summer progresses.

400 meters
1. LaShawn Merritt 76
2. Jeremy Wariner 75
3. Chris Brown 54
4. Tyler Christopher 37
5. Nery Brenes 31
6. Angelo Taylor 30
7. Sean Wroe 27
7. Sanjay Ayre 27
9. Johan Wissman 26
10. Greg Nixon 22

Merritt is undefeated in the 400 this year and beat Wariner, but Wariner just ran the world’s best time in Oslo. This could be a great clash over the whole summer. Brown and World Indoor champ Christopher appear to be the best of the rest.

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