The men's 100 metres competition at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom was held at the Olympic Stadium on 4–5 August 2012. Seventy-four athletes from 61 nations competed. Each nation was limited to 3 athletes per rules in force since the 1930 Olympic Congress. The competition comprised four rounds: a preliminary round for entrants without the minimum qualifying standard, a heats round, followed by three semi-finals of eight athletes each, which then reduced to eight athletes for the final.

Summary

Leading up to this Olympics, defending champion Usain Bolt was the star of the sport, having set world records when winning the 100 metres and 200 metres in the previous Olympics and then improving both world records when winning the 100m and 200m at the 2009 world championships. In the 2011 world championships, the 100 metres was won by Yohan Blake after a false start by Bolt. Later in the season, Blake ran a new 200 metres personal best only .07 behind Bolt's world record. At the 2012 Jamaican Olympic Trials, Blake beat Bolt in both events.

The seven round one heats were won by three Jamaican and three American favorites and Dwain Chambers of Britain. Ryan Bailey was the fastest qualifier with a personal best 9.88.

In the first semi-final, Justin Gatlin ran the fastest semi-final in history 9.82, ahead of Churandy Martina 9.91and former world record holder Asafa Powell in 9.94. Suwaibou Sanneh improved his national record for Gambia at 10.18, set the day before. In the second semi-final, defending champion Usain Bolt ran a relaxed race, finishing in 9.87. Ryan Bailey was second in 9.96. In the third semi-final, Yohan Blake ran 9.85, with Tyson Gay in second at 9.90. The final qualifier was defending silver medalist Richard Thompson with 10.02.

In the final, Bolt, started slow out of the blocks and was behind Blake and Gatlin, but accelerated with 50 meters to go to win the gold medal. He was around five feet (1.5 meters) ahead of the competition at the finish line. Bolt set a new Olympic record (beating his own record set at the 2008 Olympic Games) of 9.64 seconds, later rounded down to 9.63 seconds. Blake edged past Gatlin, who in turn held off a closing Gay at the finish line.

Usain Bolt was the second athlete after Carl Lewis (1984, 1988) to retain the men's 100m championship. His winning time was the second fastest time ever behind his own world record. Yohan Blake finished second in 9.75 seconds. Blake's time was the fastest ever not to win a gold medal. 2004 Olympic champion Justin Gatlin won the bronze medal in 9.79 seconds. The race set a number of records, including: the first time that the top 3 finished under 9.80 seconds; the first time that the top 5 finished in under 9.90 seconds; the first time that the five fastest men in 100m history (Bolt, Gay, Blake, Powell and Gatlin) all competed; and 7 of the 8 men ran in under 10 seconds (Asafa Powell finished in (11.99) after an injury 60 meters into the race). Apart from Powell, each runner's time was the fastest-ever for his respective placing. Blake, Gatlin, Gay, and Bailey all ran times that would have won at least silver in any previous Olympic final. It is considered one of the most outstanding finishes of the men's 100 metres in Olympic history.

Background

This was the twenty-seventh time the event was held, having appeared at every Olympics since the first in 1896. The field was star-studded: 2008 finalists returning were defending gold medalist Usain Bolt of Jamaica, silver medalist Richard Thompson of Trinidad and Tobago, fourth-place finisher Churandy Martina of the Netherlands (Netherlands Antilles in 2008), and fifth-place finisher Asafa Powell of Jamaica (who had now finished fifth twice in a row). The 2004 gold medalist, Justin Gatlin of the United States, returned, along with Tyson Gay and Ryan Bailey. Yohan Blake, the reigning world champion who had beat Bolt at the Jamaican Olympic trials, joined Bolt and Powell for Jamaica.

For the first time ever, no nation made its debut in the event. Lithuania returned for the first time since 1928. The United States made its 26th appearance in the event, most of any country, having missed only the boycotted 1980 Games.

Qualification

A National Olympic Committee (NOC) could enter up to 3 qualified athletes in the men's 100 metres event if all athletes met the A standard, or 1 athlete if they met the B standard. The qualifying time standards could be obtained in various meets during the qualifying period that had the approval of the IAAF. For the sprints and short hurdles, including the 100 metres, only outdoor meets were eligible. The A standard for the 2012 men's 100 metres was 10.18 seconds; the B standard was 10.24 seconds. The qualifying period for was from 1 May 2011 to 8 July 2012. NOCs could also have an athlete enter the 100 metres through a universality place. NOCs could enter one male athlete in an athletics event, regardless of time, if they had no male athletes meeting the qualifying A or B standards in any men's athletic event.

Competition format

The event saw its first significant format change since the introduction of the "fastest loser" system in 1968: the basic four round format introduced in 1920 was changed to a three-round format with preliminaries. The fastest entrants would now have to run only three times, not four. The preliminaries were reserved for the entrants using universality places (that is, not meeting the qualification standards). The changes also expanded the number of semifinals from 2 to 3 (and thus the number of semifinalists from 16 to 24), including using the "fastest loser" system in the semifinals for the first time.

The preliminary round consisted of 4 heats, each with 7 or 8 athletes. The top two runners in each heat advanced, along with the next two fastest runners overall. They joined the faster entrants in the first round of heats, which consisted of 7 heats of 8 athletes each. The top three runners in each heat, along with the next three fastest runners overall, moved on to the semifinals. The 24 semifinalists competed in three heats of 8, with the top two in each semifinal and the next two overall advancing to the eight-man final.

Records , the existing World record, Olympic record, and world leading time were as follows:

World record9.58 sBerlin, Germany16 August 2009Olympic record9.69 sBeijing, China16 August 2008World leading9.75 sKingston, Jamaica30 June 2012

The following new Olympic record was set during this competition:

Date Event Athlete Time Notes 5 August 2012 Final 9.63 s OR

The following new National records were set during this competition

Maldives national record10.79 sIvory Coast national record10.06 sGambia national record10.18 sNetherlands national record9.91 s

Schedule All times are British Summer Time (UTC+1). Date TimeSaturday, 4 August 2012 10:0012:30PreliminariesRound 1Sunday, 5 August 2012 19:4521:50SemifinalsFinals

Results

Preliminaries

Qualification rule: The first two finishers in each heat (Q) plus the two fastest times of those who finished third or lower in their heat (q) qualified.

Preliminary heat 1

Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 1 3 Artur Bruno Rojas 0.162 10.62 2 7 Devilert Arsene Kimbembe 0.143 10.68 , 3 4 Holder da Silva 0.168 10.69 , 4 8 Joseph Andy Lui 0.184 11.17 5 6 Mohan Khan 0.149 11.25 6 5 Kilakone Siphonexay 0.174 11.30 7 2 Christopher Lima da Costa 0.195 11.56 Wind: +0.9 m/s

Preliminary heat 2

Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 1 5 Jurgen Themen 0.158 10.55 2 4 Fernando Lumain 0.155 10.80 , 3 2 Wilfried Bingangoye 0.239 10.89 4 8 Liaquat Ali 0.169 10.90 5 6 Rodman Teltull 0.171 11.06 6 7 Tavevele Noa 0.180 11.55 7 3 Timi Garstang 0.162 12.81 Wind: +0.9 m/s

Preliminary heat 3 Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 1 6 Béranger Aymard Bosse 0.162 10.55 2 8 Yeo Foo Ee Gary 0.159 10.57 , 3 4 Azneem Ahmed 0.153 10.79 , 4 3 J'maal Alexander 0.163 10.92 5 5 John Howard 0.203 11.05 6 2 Chris Walasi 0.164 11.42 7 7 Elama Fa’atonu 0.170 11.48 Wind: +1.7 m/s

Preliminary heat 4

Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 1 3 Gérard Kobéané 0.194 10.42 , 2 8 Fabrice Coiffic 0.149 10.62 3 6 Courtney Carl Williams 0.164 10.80 4 2 Rachid Chouhal 0.160 10.83 5 5 Tilak Ram Tharu 0.156 10.85 6 9 Masoud Azizi 0.167 11.19 7 7 Nooa Takooa 0.155 11.53 8 4 Patrick Tuara 0.165 11.72 Wind: +0.5 m/s

Round 1

Qualification rule: The first three finishers in each heat (Q) plus the three fastest times of those who finished fourth or lower in their heat (q) qualified.

Heat 1 Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 1 6 Tyson Gay 0.147 10.08 2 5 Richard Thompson 0.151 10.14 3 7 Gerald Phiri 0.147 10.16 , 4 3 Jaysuma Saidy Ndure 0.166 10.28 5 4 Ángel David Rodríguez 0.168 10.34 6 2 Jurgen Themen 0.169 10.53 7 5 Isidro Montoya 0.165 10.54 8 1 Yeo Foo Ee Gary 0.144 10.69 Wind: −1.4 m/s

Heat 2 Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 1 4 Justin Gatlin 0.200 9.97 2 6 Derrick Atkins 0.179 10.22 3 5 Rondel Sorrillo 0.148 10.23 4 8 Dariusz Kuć 0.163 10.24 5 9 Nilson André 0.172 10.26 6 7 Masashi Eriguchi 0.144 10.30 7 3 Barakat Al-Harthi 0.152 10.41 8 2 Fernando Lumain 0.162 10.90 Wind: +0.7 m/s

Heat 3 Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 1 7 Ryan Bailey 0.177 9.88 , = 2 8 Ben Youssef Meïté 0.174 10.06 , 3 6 Justyn Warner 0.149 10.09 , 4 4 Kemar Hyman 0.150 10.16 5 9 Suwaibou Sanneh 0.176 10.21 , 6 5 Rytis Sakalauskas 0.178 10.29 7 3 Béranger Aymard Bosse 0.170 10.53 8 2 Artur Bruno Rojas 0.154 10.65 Wind: +1.5 m/s

Heat 4

Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 1 7 Usain Bolt 0.178 10.09 2 5 Daniel Bailey 0.162 10.12 3 6 James Dasaolu 0.174 10.13 4 3 Amr Ibrahim Mostafa Seoud 0.164 10.22 5 4 Jason Rogers 0.177 10.30 6 8 Ogho-Oghene Egwero 0.174 10.38 7 2 Holder da Silva 0.182 10.71 9 Idrissa Adam 0.206 Wind: +0.4 m/s

Heat 5 Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 1 7 Asafa Powell 0.166 10.04 2 4 Adam Gemili 0.156 10.11 3 6 Churandy Martina 0.168 10.20 4 9 Reza Ghasemi 0.148 10.31 5 5 Obinna Metu 0.153 10.35 6 8 Ramon Gittens 0.162 10.35 7 2 Paul Williams 0.168 10.65 8 3 Devilert Arsene Kimbembe 0.157 10.94 Wind: 0.0 m/s

Heat 6 Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 1 5 Yohan Blake 0.175 10.00 2 7 Ryota Yamagata 0.149 10.07 , 3 3 Su Bingtian 0.162 10.19 , 4 6 Antoine Adams 0.154 10.22 5 9 Peter Emelieze 0.153 10.22 6 8 Jeremy Bascom 0.135 10.31 7 4 Marek Niit 0.158 10.40 8 2 Azneem Ahmed 0.157 10.84 Wind: +1.3 m/s

Heat 7 Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 1 9 Dwain Chambers 0.157 10.02 , 2 6 Jimmy Vicaut 0.196 10.11 , 3 5 Keston Bledman 0.195 10.13 4 7 Warren Fraser 0.171 10.27 5 8 Miguel López 0.145 10.31 6 2 Gérard Kobéané 0.186 10.48 7 3 Fabrice Coiffic 0.165 10.59 4 Kim Collins colspan=2 Wind: +2.0 m/s

Semifinals

Qualification rule: The first two finishers in each heat (Q) plus the two fastest times of those who finished third or lower in their heat (q) qualified.

Semifinal 1 Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 1 7 Justin Gatlin 0.187 9.82 2 2 Churandy Martina 0.148 9.91 , 3 4 Asafa Powell 0.155 9.94 4 8 Keston Bledman 0.175 10.04 5 6 Ben Youssef Meïté 0.163 10.13 6 5 Jimmy Vicaut 0.203 10.16 7 9 James Dasaolu 0.174 10.18 8 3 Suwaibou Sanneh 0.175 10.18 Wind: +0.7 m/s

Semifinal 2 Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 1 4 Usain Bolt 0.180 9.87 2 7 Ryan Bailey 0.155 9.96 3 8 Richard Thompson 0.158 10.02 4 5 Dwain Chambers 0.154 10.05 5 9 Gerald Phiri 0.165 10.11 6 6 Daniel Bailey 0.142 10.16 7 2 Antoine Adams 0.159 10.27 8 3 Su Bingtian 0.157 10.28 Wind: +1.0 m/s

Semifinal 3 Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 1 6 Yohan Blake 0.176 9.85 2 4 Tyson Gay 0.151 9.90 3 7 Adam Gemili 0.158 10.06 4 8 Derrick Atkins 0.164 10.08 5 9 Justyn Warner 0.135 10.09 = 6 5 Ryota Yamagata 0.158 10.10 7 3 Rondel Sorrillo 0.140 10.31 2 Kemar Hyman colspan=2 Wind: +1.7 m/s

Final