The secret to the 200 is simply not slowing down
Crystal Emmanuel holds the Canadian record in the 200 metres, but the Scarborough-born sprinter used to dislike the event for a simple reason. It’s difficult. The race entails all the intensity of the 100 metres, but lasts twice as long.
But as her 200-metre achievements piled up, Emanuel’s outlook changed. And where she first saw an inconvenience, the 26-year-old York University grad now sees opportunities.
Emmanuel will line up for the 200metre final at the North American Central American and Caribbean (NACAC) Championships at Varsity Stadium on Saturday, joining men’s Canadian champion Aaron Brown as a medal contender in a high-profile event on the meet’s final day.
But reaching the podium will require more than simply blasting full-throttle from the starting blocks and ripping through a half-lap of a 400-metre track. Emmanuel and other 200-metre runners say excelling in the event requires not just speed, but self-awareness, and a sense of when to hit top speed while staying strong in the final 50 metres. Emmanuel says she embraces the chance the 200 provides to correct early-race mistakes, whereas the 100 is too short to offer any room for error.
“When I started, (I preferred) the 100, but now I’m in love with the 200,” said Emmanuel, who won bronze in the 100 metres Saturday. “In the 200 you still have maybe a split-second to fix yourself, and sometimes that’s what I do.”
From a viewer’s standpoint, understanding world-class 200-metre running means accepting that the event defies casual observer mathematics.
Blazing 100-metre speed is an asset, but doubling a world-class sprinter’s 100-metre time won’t necessarily yield clues about their 200-metre performance. Jamaican sprint star Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce has run 10.70 seconds over 100 metres, but has never eclipsed 22 seconds for the 200.
“You have to be able to relax and run your race,” said U.S. sprinter Jenna Prandini, who won Saturday’s 100-metre final. “It’s not necessarily all out, 100 per cent, the whole time.”
Nor does it always help to divine a 100-metre time based on a 200-metre personal best. Track and field record books are littered with sprinters who ran sub-20-second 200s (Michael Johnson ran 19.32) but never broke 10 seconds in the 100 (Johnson’s 100-metre best: 10.09).
Saturday’s women’s 100-metre final featured medallists better known for running the 200. Emmanuel set a new personal best of 11.11 seconds, while Prandini clocked 10.96 to set a new stadium record.
“I like them both equally, but whichever one I’m running faster in at the time would be my favourite,” Prandini said. “The 200 helps me at the end of the 100, so they complement each other really well.” Emmanuel was the only medal contender contesting both sprints this weekend.
Track experts point out that even the best 100-metre runners typically don’t maintain top speed past the 80-metre mark, and that the strongest finisher is the sprinter who limits late-race deceleration.
But experts generally agree that the fastest segment of a world-class 200-metre race unfolds between 50 and 100 metres, making the final 100 a fight to maintain dissipating speed. That quirk helps explain why a standout 400-metre runner like Johnson could blaze through the second-half of a 200, while a 100-metre specialist like Fraser-Price might flame out on the final straight.
Brown, who has run the 100 in 9.96 seconds, says he’ll lower his 200 personal best when he masters the race’s final phases.
“I still have that last 50 of the race to put together, not losing so much of the acceleration that I’ve built up,” said Brown, whose 19.98-second clocking in June leads Canadians this year. “If I can do that, and do what I’ve done in practice I have a lot more in me in terms of time.”
The list of top 200-metre runners features a variety of body types. Men’s world record holder Usain Bolt is six-foot-six, while Walter Dix, whose 19.53 ranks eighth all-time, stood a stocky five-foot-nine.
The common characteristic among men and women who excel at the 200?
Runners say it’s the ability to conquer the final 50. “That’s why it’s difficult, and that’s why not many people have run sub-19.6,” Brown said. “That’s when you get those really fast times, when you’re able to carry that speed and not die off.”