. po p - ph ] 1 6 N ov 1 99 9 9 . 84 vs . 9 . 84 : The Battle of Bruny and Bailey

At the recent 1999 World Athletics Championships in Sevilla, Spain, Canada's Bruny Surin matched Donovan Bailey's National and former World Record 100 m mark of 9.84 s. The unofficial times for each, as read from the photo-finish, were 9.833 s and 9.835 s respectively. Who, then, is the fastest Canadian of all time? A possible solution is offered, accounting for drag effects resulting from ambient tailwinds and altitude. From the moment Bruny Surin's silver-clad Seville performance popped up on the screen, it was only a matter of time before the question was raised. This story, of course, has its roots in the July 27, 1996 performance of one Donovan Bailey, Canada's prime hopeful at the centennial Olympic Games in Atlanta. Coming from behind, Dono-van shifted to a gear which that day only he possessed, surging ahead to the tape in a World Record mark of 9.84s. Fast forward to August 22, 1999: Montreal's Bruny Surin battles for global century supremacy with the formidable Maurice Greene, who a shy 2 months earlier had eclipsed Bailey's world mark in an ominously reminiscent 9.79s. Although falling mildly short of his rival's 9.80s gold medal romp, Surin's time was far from disappointing, yet in a way uniquely Canadian: 9.84s. The score so far: 9.84s Bailey, 9.84s Surin– but is a 9.84s always a 9.84s? Without delving too deeply into the philosophical, one needs to address the standards of electronic timing. For those not familiar with the equipment, the top-of-the-line photo-finish cameras actually sample at 0.001s, implying that the athletes' performances are initially recorded to three decimal places. For various reasons, the precision is only kept to two places, but the rounding process isn't quite scientific. Unless the third decimal place is '0', the times are rounded up to the next highest hundredth. So, two performances can be up to 0.009s apart, and still be regarded as " equal " ! Herein lies our current dilemma. In a recent issue of Athletics [1], it was pointed out that Bailey's 9.84 s was initially a 9.835 s, while Surin's 9.84 s was really 9.833 s. How does reaction time fit in? Donovan slept in the blocks for 0.174 s (a potential nail-in-the-coffin for an Olympic final!), while Bruny blasted ahead of his field in 0.127 s. So, after a little math, Surin clocks in with 9.706 s, but Bailey now leads at 9.661 s. Is Donovan's …