200m

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The 200 metre race is an athletics sprint running event. Despite the fact that it is often a faster race than the 100 m, it is less popular than the 100m, and often attracts runners from that event who wish to "double up" and claim both titles. This feat has been achieved eight times at the Olympic Games, the last by Carl Lewis in 1984. An Olympic double of 200 m and 400 m was first achieved by Valerie Brisco-Hooks in 1984, and later by Michael Johnson and Marie-José Pérec in 1996.

On an outdoor 400 m track, the race begins on the curve and ends on the home straight, so a combination of techniques are needed to successfully run the race. To most trained runners, this is a pure power race. A slightly shorter race, run on a straight track, was the first recorded event at the Ancient Olympics. Despite being twice as long as the 100 m, the best 200 m runners can run a 200 m in a time similar to or even faster than double their 100 m time. This is primarily because the athlete comes into the final straight at full speed already, therefore enabling them to run the second half of the 200 m faster than an athlete can usually run a regular 100 m.

The current men's world record holder is Michael Johnson, who ran 19.32 s at the 1996 Olympic Games. The current women's world record holder is Florence Griffith-Joyner, who ran 21.34 s at the 1988 Olympic Games. The reigning Olympic champions are Shawn Crawford and Veronica Campbell.

Famous 200 m runners

Men

  • Shawn Crawford
  • Michael Johnson
  • Kostas Kenteris
  • Carl Lewis
  • Michael Marsh
  • Pietro Mennea
  • Jesse Owens
  • Tommie Smith
  • Frank Fredericks
  • Tyson Gay
  • Wallace Spearmon
  • John Regis

Women

  • Fanny Blankers-Koen
  • Florence Griffith-Joyner
  • Marion Jones
  • Marie-José Pérec
  • Gwen Torrence
  • Allyson Felix
  • Veronica Campbell
  • Valerie Brisco-Hooks
  • Merlene Ottey

The 200m in Greece

Greece has a claim to fame in the 200m as Kostas Kenteris won the race in the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia. Kenteris also won the World Championship in 2001, the European championship in 2002 and is the current Greek record holder at 19.85 as of August 9, 2002.

The womens record-holder is Katerina Koffa with 22.67 as of June 16, 1996.

Male Athletes

Female Athletes

External links


References


A portion of content for this article is credited to Wikipedia. Content under GNU Free Documentation License(GFDL)