Has anyone ever covered 100m in under 9 seconds from a running start?

Answer 1

If they would have, we would have heard about it. Maybe some Jungle man deep in the heart of the Amazon that no one knows about might have, but that someone that we know of, no.

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I like the Amazon man answer. I found something interesting though: http://worldrec.info/2007/08/28/athletics-100m-what-is-the-fastest-possible-timeThis covers the fastest possible "assembled" 100m based on the best ever recorded split times for every 10m. They add up to about 9.5. However, the fastest first 10m length is 1.69 seconds due to the acceleration time off the blocks, while everything else is in the .85-.90 range.Replace the first 10 meters with a .90 and I'd venture that Bolt last night possibly covered a 100m stretch of the 200m final in under 9 seconds!

Asafa Powel ran 100m in 8.70 seconds as the anchor leg in the 4x100m men's sprint team in the 2008 Beijing Olympics - the fastest electronically timed 100m ever.

Bob Hayes has the fastest hand-timed 100m, also as the anchor leg, as part of the US Olympic Sprint team at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, with a time of 9.5 seconds.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4_x_100_metres_relay)