The 100m: Rules, Records and Fantasy Scoring

What the event is

The 100m is the shortest outdoor sprint and the race that decides the title of fastest person in the world. It is run on the straight, one athlete per lane, from starting blocks to a finish line ten seconds or so away. Nothing else on the programme is decided as quickly, which is why a single stumble out of the blocks can end a championship.

How it is run

Athletes start from blocks and must stay in their lane for the full distance. Electronic timing measures reaction time to the thousandth of a second: a reaction faster than 0.100 seconds is treated as a false start, and under current World Athletics rules one false start means disqualification.

Wind matters. A tailwind stronger than 2.0 metres per second makes a time wind-assisted, which means it cannot count as a record. Fast times on windy days are real wins, but they do not go in the record book.

At championships the 100m runs through heats, semifinals and a final, usually over two days. Diamond League and other one-day meets run a straight final, sometimes with a B race for athletes outside the main field.

What a world-class mark looks like

Breaking 10 seconds for men and 11 seconds for women is the traditional line between very good and world class. A championship final typically needs something around 9.90 or 10.90 to reach the podium. The world records, 9.58 for men and 10.49 for women, have stood for a long time and are approached only a handful of times a decade.

How the 100m scores in Heatsheet

Sprinters fill the sprint roster slot, alongside the 200m and 400m, and your lineup can start at most two of them. Place points come from the final only: 10 for the win down to 1 for eighth. At a championship, reaching the semifinal and the final adds advancement bonuses on top, so a sprinter who goes all the way can score close to double what a Diamond League win pays.

Two things make 100m runners valuable. Many of them double in the 200m, and an athlete in your lineup scores in every event they contest at a meet. And the top sprinters race often through the summer circuit, which means more scoring chances than a distance runner who picks three races a year. The risk is the false start: one twitch and the meet is a zero. Read the full rules on the scoring page.