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Wednesday 29 September 2010

Speedendurance.com

What is the 100 meter World Record for Running Backwards?

Posted: 29 Sep 2010 07:00 AM PDT

What would you say if I had a male athlete running 13.6 for 100 meters, 31.56 for 200 meters, and 69.56 for 400 meters?

Or 4 men running the 4×100 meter relay in 62.55?

It would either be a beginner Youth athlete, or a senior Masters athlete, right?

Wrong.

Those are world records for running backwards, or backward running. It's also called retrorunning.

Some retrorunners claim this style of running strengthens the hamstrings (among other muscles). Frankly, it downright dangerous if you can't see where you are going! However, for a short distance, such as 10 yards, I can see the benefit for a Free Safety position in American football.

For those of you (i.e. most of us) where 9.58 seconds is out of reach, maybe 13.6 can be your claim to fame?

For the record, the Women's records are 16.8, 38.47, 1:29.0 and 1:17.8 respectively (100-200-400-4×100)

Other world records are listed here, and the 4×100m video is here on YouTube: