They are bandying about speeds of the speeds of various footballers and Walcott’s impressive afterburner display against Maxwell has them agog.
Walcott has been timed at 10:37 seconds in the 100 meters. Usain Bolt the world record holder ran it in 9:58 seconds, so Walcott’s performance is very commendable.
For where Walcott would have stood in history with his timing, we would have to go back to 1932 when Ralph Metcalf and Eddie Tolan clocked 10:3. Jesse Owens ran a 10:2 in 1934. The 10 second barrier was broken by Jim Hines at the 1968 Mexico Olympics when he won the gold medal in 9:95 seconds.