La Chaux-de-Fonds is a Swiss city in the canton of Neuchâtel. It is located in the Jura Mountains at an altitude of 992 metres, a few kilometres south of the French border. After Geneva, Lausanne, Bienne, and Fribourg, it is the fifth-largest city in the Romandie, the French-speaking part of the country, with a population of 36,915.
The 200 metres, or 200-meter dash, is a sprint running event. On an outdoor 400 metre racetrack, the race begins on the curve and ends on the home straight, so a combination of techniques is needed to successfully run the race. A slightly shorter race, called the stadion and run on a straight track, was the first recorded event at the ancient Olympic Games. The 200 m places more emphasis on speed endurance than shorter sprint distances as athletes predominantly rely on anaerobic energy system during the 200 m sprint. Similarly to other sprint distances, the 200 m begins from the starting blocks. When the sprinters adopt the 'set' position in the blocks they are able to adopt a more efficient starting posture and isometrically preload their muscles. This enables them to stride forwards more powerfully when the race begins and start faster.
Wallace Spearmon Jr. is a retired American sprint athlete who specialized in the 200 meters. He is a two-time NCAA outdoor champion in the 200 m and won the silver medal in the event at the 2005 World Championships in Athletics. He has a personal best of 19.65 seconds for the distance, making him the thirteenth fastest 200 meter runner of all time, and he formerly held the indoor American record.
The 100 metres hurdles, or 100-meter hurdles, is a track and field event run mainly by women. For the race, ten hurdles of a height of 33 inches (83.8 cm) are placed along a straight course of 100 metres (109.36 yd). The first hurdle is placed after a run-up of 13 metres from the starting line. The next 9 hurdles are set at a distance of 8.5 metres from each other, and the home stretch from the last hurdle to the finish line is 10.5 metres long. The hurdles are set up so that they will fall over if bumped into by the runner, but weighted so this is disadvantageous. Fallen hurdles do not count against runners provided that they do not run into them on purpose. Like the 100 metres sprint, the 100 m hurdles begins with athletes in starting blocks.
Isaac Makwala is a Botswana sprinter who specializes in the 400 metres.
The 10-second barrier is the physical and psychological barrier of completing the 100 metres sprint in under ten seconds. The achievement is traditionally regarded as the hallmark of a world-class male sprinter. Its significance has become less important since the late 1990s, as an increasing number of runners have surpassed the ten seconds mark. The current men's world record holder is Usain Bolt, who ran a 9.58 at the 2009 IAAF World Championship competition.
Anna Kiełbasińska is a Polish sprinter who competed occasionally also in hurdling events. She won the bronze medal in the 400 metres as well as silver medals in the 4 x 100 m and 4 x 400 m relays at the 2022 European Championships. Kiełbasińska earned bronze for the 400 m at the 2023 European Indoor Championships. She won several major medals as part of Polish 4 x 400 m relay teams and also individual medals at European Under-20 and U23 Championships.
Wei Yongli is a Chinese sprinter. She competed in the 100 metres competition at the 2012 Summer Olympics; she ran Round 1 in 11.48 seconds, which did not qualify her for the semifinals.
Sydney Sido Siame is a Zambian sprinter. He competed in the 200 metres at the 2015 World Championships in Beijing without advancing from the first round. In addition, he won a gold medal at the 2014 Summer Youth Olympics.
Kevin Widmer is a retired Swiss athlete who competed in sprinting events. He represented his country at the 1996 Summer Olympics, as well as three outdoor and two indoor World Championships. Widmer is of Vietnamese descent and currently works as an athletics coach.
Stanly José del Carmen Cruz is sprinter from the Dominican Republic. He competed at the 2016 Olympics in the 200 m and 4 × 100 m relay, but failed to reach the finals.
David Gerson Semedo Neves Lima is a Portuguese athlete competing in sprinting events. He has represented Portugal at two European Championships and one World Championships. At club level, he competes for S.L. Benfica.
Julien Watrin is a Belgian sprinter specialising in the 400 metres. In 2023, he won his first individual major senior medal, with silver at the European Indoor Championships. Watrin earned several major medals with national men's 4 × 400 m relays, including bronzes at the 2019 and 2022 World Athletics Championships.
Hanne Claes is a Belgian athlete specialising first in the 200 metres and later 400 metres hurdles.
Taymir Burnet is a Dutch sprinter. He earned two bronze medals as part of Dutch men's 4 × 100 and 4 × 400 metres relays.
Marije van Hunenstijn is a Dutch sprinter. She won a silver medal in the 4 × 100 metres relay at the 2018 European Championships.
Jessica-Bianca Wessolly is a German sprinter. She won a silver medal in the 200 metres at the 2019 Summer Universiade and has been the European Champion with the German 4 × 100 metres relay team since 2022.
The following table is an overview of national records in the 100 metres.
Andrea Bouma is a Dutch athlete who competes as a sprinter.
