5 Records in Athletics That May Never Be Broken, Including Usain Bolt’s Sprint Records

The athletics outdoor 2023 season will reach its climax when the World Athletics Championships kicks off in Budapest this weekend.

Apart from winning the World and Olympic titles, athletes usually try to go a step further and etch their names into history books by setting new world record.

Armando Duplantis has made it his own in disciplines like the men's pole vault, and it almost feels like the Swede sets a new record every time he competes. Since 2020, Duplantis has broken the record six times. It currently stands at 6.22 metres, which he set in Clermont, France, in February this year.

World champion Noah Lyles mocks Ferdinand Omanyala after beating him at Atlanta City Games

Athletics

But for other records, it will require a whole lot more for someone to break them. In life, you never say never, but as Sports Brief reports, it will take something extraordinary for another athlete to shatter these records.

1. Usain Bolt's 100m, 200m records

Name a better sprinter you've ever seen; we will wait. Bolt elevated the sport to levels never seen before, such that by the time he was done in 2017, he had achieved undisputed GOAT status.

Berlin will forever remain one of the Jamaican's favourite cities, given that he set two of the fastest times ever recorded in both the 100 metres and 200 metres in 2009. The World Athletics Championships (then known as IAAF Championships) gave birth to Lighting Bolt.

Bolt clocked 9.58 seconds in the 100 metres, and reached the astounding speed of 44.72 km/h in the 60m to 80 m split. The closest anyone has come to this record was Tyson Gay's and Yohan Blake's 9.69 seconds in 2009 and 2012, respectively.

Bolt's 200-metre record

A year earlier, at the Beijing Olympics, Bolt set a new world record by shaving 0.02 seconds from Michael Johnson's 19.32 seconds.

He then bettered this in Berlin by running a blistering 19.19 seconds. His two times are among the three fastest times in history, with only Yohan Blake's run at the Brussels Diamond League Meet in 2011 coming between Bolt's times.

In essence, it has always been Bolt against the clock, and no one has come close to replicating what he did.

2. Florence Griffith-Joyner: 100 metres

This is one that always attracts controversy, given the lack of proper time-reading equipment in the 80s when Flo-Jo, as she was affectionately known, took over.

At the US Trials in Indianapolis for the 1988 Seoul Olympics, Flo-Jo ran an unbelievable 10.49 seconds in the quarter-finals of the heats. The World Athletics continues to recognise it as an official record, despite reports of it being massively wind-assisted (4.3m/s, which is way higher than the legal limit of 2.3m/s).

No other woman has ever broken the 10.5 seconds barrier. Five-time Olympic champion, Elain Thompson-Herah came closest with 10.54 seconds at the Prefontaine Classin in Eugene in 2021.

Five-time world champion, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce has the most number of sub-10.7 seconds races, but even she hasn't come anywhere close to Flo-Jo's mind-boggling record.

3. Uwe Hohn's javelin record

If you think Bolt's and Flo-Jo's records are crazy, wait until you hear what Uwe Hohn did in 1984.

Javelin as a sport has come a long way, with the first record coming in 1912. Thereafter, there have been changes to rules and some magnificent throws. To date, though, none have been as stellar as Hohn's 104.80-metre throw at the Olympic Day of Athletics competition at Friedrich-Ludwig Park.

For perspective, no one else has ever crossed the 100-metre mark. There have been a couple of 99s, but nobody has done an over-100m throw.

Hohn coached Neeraj Chopra, who is the current Olympic champion. Chopra's personal best is 89.94m.

4. Jarmila Kratochvílová's 800m record

This record has been in place since 1983, and it will certainly require a huge phenomenon to break it. Kratochvílová clocked a time of 1:53:28 in the 800 metres. She has been dogged by accusations of doping in the past, but no concrete evidence has ever been found against the Czech national.

Only Pamela Jelimo (1:54:01) and Caster Semenya (1:54:25) have come close to her record.

5. Marita Koch's 400m record

Given what Sydney McLaughlin did in the 400-metre hurdles last year, some might be a bit sceptical about adding this to the list. But the mere fact that it has been in place since 1985 shows just how huge a record it is.

Koch clocked 47.60 seconds at the IAAF Championships in Australia. In recent times, athletes who have come close to breaking the record are Salwa Eid Nasser, who clocked 48.14 seconds in the WAC in Doha in 2019, and Shaunnae Miller-Uibo, who ran 47.36 seconds at the Tokyo 2021 Olympics.

The beauty of sports lies in taking on the unknown and breaking records. As Eliud Kipchoge often says, no human is limited- but one does get the feeling that these records will take something beyond extraordinary to be broken.

Football records that could last

Sports Brief previously reported on how football is typically a game of statistics and numbers. Some of the biggest names in the game have set unbelievable records in their careers - the likes of which we may never see again.

Part of the reason the sport can be so exciting is the prospect of seeing records getting broken. This season, for example, we have Erling Haaland, who has broken several records in his maiden season in English football.