World’s Fastest Men

It’s official, VFL Justin Gatlin and senior Christian Coleman beat Usain Bolt—the world’s fastest man—to take home gold and silver, respectively, in the men’s 100-meter final of the IAAF World Championships in London.

The pair of Vols finished ahead of Bolt, dealing him his only loss in an Olympic or IAAF championship event and his first loss in 45 races. Coleman beat Bolt twice, coming ahead of him in the third heat of the 100-meter semifinals and then again with his second-place finish in the finals. Watch the race on the UT Athletics website.

Coleman had just finished a season that most athletes can only dream of. He racked up four national championships, three SEC championships, a host of All-American honors, and a few impressive broken records.

Coleman set the collegiate record in the 100-meter in the preliminaries of the NCAA Championship with a time of 9.82 seconds, obliterating the previous record by .07 seconds. He went on to win the national championship in both the 100-meter and 200-meter dashes. At the NCAA East Prelims, Coleman ran the second-fastest 200-meter time in collegiate history with a 19.85.

At the SEC Championship, he did something no collegian has ever done by posting, on the same day, wind-legal times under 10 seconds in the 100-meter and under 20 seconds in the 200-meter. He is just the eighth individual in track and field history to pull off this feat.

His accolades during outdoor season followed a historic performance at the NCAA Indoor Championship. Coleman tied the collegiate record in the 60-meter dash with a time of 6.45 seconds as he notched the largest margin of victory in NCAA Championship history. He came back to run the fourth-fastest time ever recorded in an indoor 200- meter, and the second-fastest 200-meter ever recorded by a college athlete, claiming his second consecutive title in that event with a posted time of 20.11.

See photos and find out more about Coleman’s historic season on the UT Athletics website.

Photos courtesy of UT Athletics

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