By Lev Rourke
Photo: Kim Spir
The Oregonian Ryan Bailey had the biggest race of his life on Sunday in Rieti, Italy, running 9.88 for 100 meters. Bailey, the 21-year-old from Salem, finished 2nd to Jamaican Nesta Carter, who won the race in 9.78, a lifetime best. The race was aided by a legal 0.9 mps wind.
Bailey actually first set a PR in the semifinal round, winning Heat II in a legal 9.95 (+1.1 wind), bettering the 10.05 he ran a year ago at the national junior college championships.
Only five Americans have ever run faster than 9.88 – Tyson Gay, Maurice Greene, Leroy Burrell, Justin Gatlin and Carl Lewis. All of those but Gay held the world record at some point in the 100.
Carter’s time of 9.78 has been exceeded by only three men – countrymen Usain Bolt and Asafa Powell and the American Gay.
Behind Carter and Bailey were Mario Forsythe of Jamaica (9.95), Christophe Lemaitre of France (9.97), Michael Frater of Jamaica (9.98) and Michael Rodgers of the United States (10.00). This gives Jamaica six sprinters under 10 flat this season – Forsythe, Frater, Carter, Bolt, Powell and Yohan Blake.
Another Salem-area runner also ran a lifetime best, in the men’s 800, where Nick Symmonds finished 3rd in 1:43.76, bettering his year-old PR of 1:43.83. The race was won by David Rudisha of Kenya, who merely ran 1:41.01, bettering his short-lived world record from earlier in the week by .08.
In the men’s 3,000, Bernard Lagat broke the American record, running 7:29.00, becoming the first American to go under 7:30. The race was won by Tariku Bekele of Ethiopia in 7:28.70. The previous AR was 7:30.84 by Bob Kennedy in 1998.
In 5th was Portlander Chris Solinsky, in 7:34.32. Among Americans only Kennedy, Lagat, Sydney Maree and Matt Tegenkamp have ever run faster. Galen Rupp finished well back, 14th in 7:50.46.
Solinsky however lost his 2010 world lead in the men’s 10,000 on Sunday when Josephat Kiprono of Kenya ran a near-solo 26:56.74 in Turku, Finland. Solinsky had been the global season leader off his American Record time of 26:59.90 at Stanford in the spring. Only one other runner finished the race in Turku.