Usain Bolt believes he could have run 100m in 9.42 sec with the modern “super spikes”

Usain Bolt, whose world record of 9.58 sec for the 100m has stood for 16 years, believes he could have run the distance in 9.42 sec with the “super spikes” that sprinters compete in today.

The Jamaican athlete made his mark at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin, breaking his own record of 9.69 sec from the Beijing 2008 Olympics, and his achievement now stands longer than Jim Hines’ 14-year-old record of 9.95 sec, set at the Mexico City 1968 Olympics.

A study by Puma, the company that carried him through his glorious era of dominance, predicted that Usain Bolt would run 9.42 sec today, and speaking at an event ahead of the World Championships in Tokyo, the former Jamaican sprinter said: “I totally agree”.

“Someone who carried on after I retired was Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and I saw what she did – she got faster”, said Usain Bolt. “I probably would have run a lot faster if I had kept competing and if I had known that the development of spikes would get to that level. I probably would have because it would be great to compete at that level and run that fast”, added he.

Usain Bolt added that he was not worried about anyone breaking his record anytime soon.

“I think the talent is there and the ones that are coming up will do well, but at this point I don’t think they can break the world record”, said the Jamaican athlete.

Tokyo will be the first world athletics event that Usain Bolt will attend since retiring from the sport at the 2017 World Championships in London.