The men's 100 metres was an event at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain. There were a total number of 81 participating athletes from 66 nations, with ten qualifying heats (three qualified plus two fastest losers). Each nation was limited to 3 athletes per rules in force since the 1930 Olympic Congress.

The gold medal was won by Great Britain's Linford Christie, who had originally won the bronze medal in 1988 but was elevated to silver following the disqualification of original gold medalist Ben Johnson for using stanozolol. Silver went to Namibia's Frankie Fredericks, who also finished second in the 200 metres in Barcelona, while Dennis Mitchell of the United States of America won the bronze. Namibia had never competed in the men's 100 metres before, so Fredericks's medal was that nation's first in the event; it was also the first medal by an African country in the event since 1908 (when Reggie Walker of South Africa won gold).

Background

This was the twenty-second time the event was held, having appeared at every Olympics since the first in 1896. The gold and bronze medalists from 1988, Americans Carl Lewis (the two-time defending gold medalist as well as three-time reigning world champion, struck by infection at the U.S. trials) and Calvin Smith, did not return, but British silver medalist Linford Christie (reigning Commonwealth and European champion) did. So did fourth-place finisher American Dennis Mitchell (who had taken bronze at the 1991 world championships), Brazilian fifth-place finisher Robson da Silva, Jamaican seventh-place finisher Ray Stewart, and the disqualified original champion, Canadian Ben Johnson. World championship runner-up American Leroy Burrell was also present in 1992.

The Cayman Islands, the Central African Republic, the Cook Islands, Cyprus, Gabon, Grenada, Honduras, Mauritania, Namibia, and Niger appeared in the event for the first time. It was also the only appearance of the Unified Team, following the breakup of the Soviet Union. Romania appeared independently for the first time since 1928. The United States made its 21st appearance in the event, most of any country, having missed only the boycotted 1980 Games.

Competition format

The event retained the same basic four round format introduced in 1920: heats, quarterfinals, semifinals, and a final. The "fastest loser" system, introduced in 1968, was used again to ensure that the quarterfinals and subsequent rounds had exactly 8 runners per heat; this time, the system was used in only the preliminaries.

The first round consisted of 10 heats, each with 8 athletes except the last (with 9). The top three runners in each heat advanced, along with the next two fastest runners overall. This made 32 quarterfinalists, who were divided into 4 heats of 8 runners. The top four runners in each quarterfinal advanced, with no "fastest loser" places. The 16 semifinalists competed in two heats of 8, with the top four in each semifinal advancing to the eight-man final.Official Report, vol. 5, pp. 36–37.

Records

These were the standing world and Olympic records (in seconds) prior to the 1992 Summer Olympics.

World record 9.86 Carl Lewis Tokyo (JPN) August 25, 1991 Olympic record 9.92 Carl Lewis Seoul (KOR) September 24, 1988

Results

Heats

Heat 1

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Leroy Burrell 10.21 2 Satoru Inoue 10.48 3 Jean-Olivier Zirignon 10.55 4 Abdulieh Janneh 10.71 5 Hassane Illiassou 10.73 6 Khalid Juma Juma 10.80 7 Jaime Zelaya 11.02 8 Claude Roumain 11.07

Heat 2

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Dennis Mitchell 10.21 2 Vitaliy Savin 10.29 3 Samuel Nchinda 10.41 4 Gustavo Envela Mahua 10.65 5 Florencio Aguilar 10.73 6 Dominique Canti 10.80 — Charles Tayot — Andreas Berger

Heat 3

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Linford Christie 10.48 2 Arnaldo da Silva 10.55 3 Daniel Sangouma 10.63 4 Ato Boldon 10.77 5 Hussain Arif 10.83 6 Fabian Muyaba 10.84 7 Pascal Dangbo 11.03 8 Henry Daley Colphon 11.11

Heat 4

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Frankie Fredericks 10.29 2 Marcus Adam 10.57 3 Atlee Mahorn 10.64 4 Boevi Lawson 10.69 5 Sriyantha Dissanayake 10.87 6 Gabriel Simeon 11.10 7 Adam Hassan Sakak 11.12 8 Robinson Stewart 11.20

Heat 5

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Ray Stewart 10.61 2 Patrick Stevens 10.63 3 John Myles-Mills 10.64 4 Neville Hodge 10.71 5 Henrico Atkins 10.83 6 Golam Ambia 11.06 7 Gabrieli Qoro 11.14 8 Mark Sherwin 11.53

Heat 6

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Davidson Ezinwa 10.31 2 Ben Johnson 10.55 3 Eric Akogyiram 10.60 4 Juan Trapero 10.64 5 Joel Otim 10.84 6 Soryba Diakité 11.10 7 Ould Nouroudine 11.22 8 Ahmed Shageef 11.36

Heat 7

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Olapade Adeniken 10.36 2 Talal Mansour Al-Rahim 10.43 3 Stefan Burkart 10.67 4 Visut Watanasin 10.72 5 André da Silva 10.78 6 Valentin Ngbogo 10.79 7 Bernard Manana 11.35 8 Sitthixay Sacpraseuth 12.02

Heat 8

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Chidi Imoh 10.47 2 Daniel Cojocaru 10.57 3 Sanusi Turay 10.58 4 Kennedy Ondieki 10.60 5 Kareem Streete-Thompson 10.78 6 David Nkoua 10.96 7 Emery Gill 11.51 8 Ahmed Al-Moamari Bashir 11.58

Heat 9

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Max Morinière 10.36 2 Bruny Surin 10.37 3 Emmanuel Tuffour 10.45 4 Tatsuo Sugimoto 10.56 5 Ku Wai Ming 10.74 6 Toluta'u Koula 10.85 7 Afonso Ferraz 11.32 8 Fletcher Wamilee 11.41

Heat 10

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Robson da Silva 10.24 2 Mark Witherspoon 10.27 3 Pavel Galkin 10.43 4 Yiannis Zisimides 10.51 5 Shinji Aoto 10.54 6 Charles Louis Seck 10.57 7 Ousmane Diarra 10.87 8 Bothloko Shebe 10.94 — Patrice Traoré Zeba

Quarterfinals

Quarterfinal 1

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Mark Witherspoon 10.19 2 Robson da Silva 10.29 3 Talal Mansour Al-Rahim 10.32 4 Max Morinière 10.34 5 Marcus Adam 10.35 6 Pavel Galkin 10.37 7 Eric Akogyiram 10.68 8 Atlee Mahorn 10.77

Quarterfinal 2

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Frankie Fredericks 10.13 2 Bruny Surin 10.24 3 Vitaliy Savin 10.33 4 Davidson Ezinwa 10.38 5 John Myles-Mills 10.41 6 Stefan Burkart 10.57 7 Samuel Nchinda 10.58 8 Patrick Stevens 10.69

Quarterfinal 3

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Dennis Mitchell 10.22 2 Olapade Adeniken 10.22 3 Emmanuel Tuffour 10.31 4 Ray Stewart 10.36 5 Satoru Inoue 10.50 6 Daniel Cojocaru 10.57 7 Daniel Sangouma 10.64 8 Yiannis Zisimides 10.65

Quarterfinal 4

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Linford Christie 10.07 2 Leroy Burrell 10.08 3 Chidi Imoh 10.21 4 Ben Johnson 10.30 5 Sanusi Turay 10.40 6 Arnaldo da Silva 10.47 7 Shinji Aoto 10.53 8 Jean-Olivier Zirignon 10.54

Semifinals

Semifinal 1

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Leroy Burrell 9.97 2 Linford Christie 10.00 3 Dennis Mitchell 10.10 4 Davidson Ezinwa 10.23 5 Chidi Imoh 10.30 6 Robson da Silva 10.32 7 Vitaliy Savin 10.33 8 Ben Johnson 10.70

Semifinal 2

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Frankie Fredericks 10.17 2 Bruny Surin 10.21 3 Olapade Adeniken 10.28 4 Ray Stewart 10.33 5 Talal Mansour Al-Rahim 10.34 6 Emmanuel Tuffour 10.34 7 Max Morinière 10.42 — Mark Witherspoon

Final

The final was held on August 1, 1992. Wind: +0.5m/s Rank Lane Athlete Nation Time 5 Linford Christie 9.96 3 Frankie Fredericks 10.02 4 Dennis Mitchell 10.04 4 1 Bruny Surin 10.09 5 6 Leroy Burrell 10.10 6 8 Olapade Adeniken 10.12 7 2 Ray Stewart 10.22 8 7 Davidson Ezinwa 10.26

See also 1991 Men's World Championships 100 metres 1993 Men's World Championships 100 metres

References

External links Official Report Results