ATHLETIC WORLD RECORDS

So, you want to be a champion athlete. Well if you can manage the average speeds of the
following champion runners you are on your way to the Tokyo Olympics in 2020! It’s your task to
calculate the average speed from the times for the following world track records to see how fast
you need to be going to make Australia’s Olympic team.

EVENT (MALE) TIME ATHLETE AV. SPEED

100 metres 9.58 Usain Bolt 10.43ms-1
(Jamaica 2009)
200 metres 19.19 Usain Bolt 10.42ms-1
(Jamaica 2009)
400 metres 43.03 Wayde van Niekerk 9.29ms-1
(South Africa 2016)
800 metres 1 minute:40.91 David Rudisha 8ms-1
(Kenya 2012)
1000 metres 2 minutes:11.96 Noah Ngeny 7.63ms-1
(Kenya 1999)
1500 metres 3 minutes:26.00 Hicham El Guerrouj 7.28ms-1
(Morocco 1998)
3000 metres 7 minutes:20.67 Daniel Komen 6.8ms-1
(Kenya 1996)
5000 metres 12 minutes:37.35 Kenenisa Bekele 6.6ms-1
(Ethiopia 2004)
10000 metres 26 minutes:17.53 Kenenisa Bekele 6.3ms-1
(Ethiopia 2005)
10 km (road) 26 minutes:44 Leonard Komon 6.23ms-1
(Kenya 2010)
15 km (road) 41 minutes:13 Leonard Komon 6.05ms-1
(Kenya 2010)
20000 metres 56 minutes:25.98 Haile Gebrselassie 5.9ms-1
(Ethiopia 2007)
20 km (road) 55 minutes:21 Zersenay Tadese 6.02ms-1
(Eritrea 2010)
Half Marathon 58 minutes:23 Zersenay Tadese 6.02ms-1
(21 098 m) (Eritrea 2010)
Marathon 2 hours: 2 min.57 Dennis Kimetto 5.7ms-1
(42 195 m) (Kenya 2014)
100 km (road) 6 hours: 13 min.33 Takahiro Sunada 4.46ms-1
(Japan 1998)
110 m hurdles 12.80 Aries Merritt 8.59ms-1
(USA 2012)
400 m hurdles 46.78 Kevin Young 8.55ms-1
(USA 1992)
3000 m 7 minutes: 53.63 Saif Saaeed Shaheen 6.34ms-1
steeplechase (Qatar 2004)
 ATHLETIC WORLD RECORDS

EVENT (FEMALE) TIME ATHLETE AV. SPEED

100 metres 10.49 Florence Joyner 9.5ms-1
(USA 1988)
200 metres 21.34 Florence Joyner 9.37ms-1
(USA 1988)
400 metres 47.60 Marita Koch 8.4ms-1
(E Germany 1985)
800 metres 1 minute:53.28 J Kratochvilova 7ms-1
(Czech 1983)
1000 metres 2minutes:28.98 S Masterkova 6.75ms-1
(Russia 1996
1500 metres 3 minutes:50 Genzebe Dibada 6.52ms-1
(Ethiopia 2015)
3000 metres 8 minutes:06.11 Wang Junxia 6.17ms-1
(China 1993)
5000 metres 14 minutes:11.15 Tirunesh Dibaba 5.87ms-1
(Ethiopia 2008)
10000 metres 29 minutes:31.78 Wang Junxia 5.64ms-1
(China 1993)
10 km (road) 30 minutes:21 Paula Radcliffe 5.4ms-1
(Britain 2003)
15 km (road) 46 minutes:14 Florence Kiplagat 5.4ms-1
(Kenya 2015)
20000 metres 1:05:26.6 Tegla Loroupe 5.09ms-1
(Kenya 2000)
20 km (road) 1:01:54 Florence Kiplagat 5.3ms-1
(Kenya 2015)
Half Marathon 1:04:52 Joyciline Jepkosgei 5.4ms-1
(Kenya 2017)
Marathon 2:15:25 Paula Radcliffe 5.19ms-1
(Britain 2003)
100 km (road) 6:33:11 Tomoe Abe 4.2ms-1
(Japan 2000)
100 m hurdles 12.20 Kendra Harrison 8.19ms-1
(USA 2016)
400 m hurdles 52.34 Y Pechonkina 7.64ms-1
(Russia 2003)
3000 m 8:52.78 Ruth Jebet 5.6ms-1
steeplechase (USA 2016)
 ATHLETIC WORLD RECORDS

The table below shows typical top running speeds of a number of animals. Calculate the missing
values.

ANIMAL SPEED (m s – 1) Speed (km hr – 1)

Cheetah 28.3ms-1 102
Red Kangaroo 17.5 63
Giraffe 15.5ms-1 56
Emu 13.8ms-1 50
Human 7.5 27
Elephant 6.6ms-1 24
Chicken 4 14.4
Giant Tortoise 0.075 0.27