The men's 100 metres was one of 23 track events of the athletics at the 2004 Summer Olympics, in Athens. It was contested at the Athens Olympic Stadium, from August 21 to 22, by a total of 82 sprinters from 62 nations. Each nation was limited to 3 athletes per rules in force since the 1930 Olympic Congress.

The event was won by Justin Gatlin of the United States, the nation's second consecutive title and 16th overall in the event. Portugal earned its first medal in the men's 100 metres, with Francis Obikwelu's silver. The final was the fastest and most disputed in Olympic history, with six runners covering the distance in 10.00 seconds or less (four of them under the 9.90 mark), and the gold and bronze medalist athletes separated by 0.02 seconds.

The medals for the competition were presented by Juan Antonio Samaranch, IOC Honorary President for Life, Spain; and the medalists' bouquets were presented by Lamine Diack, IAAF President, Senegal.

Background

This was the twenty-fifth time the event was held, having appeared at every Olympics since the first in 1896. All three finalists from 2000 returned: defending gold medalist Maurice Greene of the United States, silver medalist Ato Boldon of Trinidad and Tobago, and bronze medalist Obadele Thompson of Barbados, along with three other finalists (Darren Campbell of Great Britain, Kim Collins of Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Aziz Zakari of Ghana). Two-time silver medalist (1992 and 1996) Frankie Fredericks of Namibia also returned after missing the Sydney Games with injury.

Collins was the reigning (2003) world champion, as well as Commonwealth champion. Francis Obikwelu of Portugal had won the 2002 European Championship. On the United States team, along with an aging Greene (still a medal contender, but no longer as dominant as in 2000), was a young Justin Gatlin.

Aruba, Jordan, Kiribati, the Federated States of Micronesia, and Slovenia appeared in the event for the first time. The United States made its 24rd appearance in the event, most of any country, having missed only the boycotted 1980 Games.

Qualification

The Olympic qualification period for the athletics ran from 1 January 2003 to 9 August 2004. For this event, each National Olympic Committee (NOC) was permitted to enter up to three athletes, provided they had run below 10.21 seconds during this period in IAAF-sanctioned meetings or tournaments. If a NOC had no athletes qualified under this standard, it could enter up to one athlete that had run below 10.28 seconds.

Competition format

The event retained the same basic four round format introduced in 1920: heats, quarterfinals, semifinals, and a final. The "fastest loser" system, introduced in 1968, was used again to ensure that the quarterfinals and subsequent rounds had exactly 8 runners per heat; this time, the system was used in both the heats and quarterfinals.

The first round consisted of 10 heats, each with 8 or 9 athletes. The top three runners in each heat advanced, along with the next ten fastest runners overall. This made 40 quarterfinalists, who were divided into 5 heats of 8 runners. The top three runners in each quarterfinal advanced, with one "fastest loser" place. The 16 semifinalists competed in two heats of 8, with the top four in each semifinal advancing to the eight-man final.

Records Prior to the competition, the existing world record, Olympic record, and world leading time were as follows:

No new records were set during the competition.

Schedule All times are Eastern European Summer Time (UTC+3)

Date Time RoundSaturday, 21 August 2004 10:3519:40 Round 1Round 2Sunday, 22 August 2004 20:5523:10 SemifinalsFinal

Results

Round 1

Qualification rule: The first three finishers in each heat (Q) plus the ten fastest times of those who finished fourth or lower in their heat (q) qualified.

Heat 1

Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 1 5 Frankie Fredericks 0.152 10.12 , 2 3 Uchenna Emedolu 0.222 10.22 3 4 Shingo Suetsugu 0.174 10.27 4 7 Darren Campbell 0.159 10.35 5 9 Chen Haijian 0.181 10.45 6 2 Eric Nkansah 0.160 10.54 7 6 Poh Seng Song 0.160 10.75 8 8 Yazaldes Nascimento 0.185 11.00 Wind: −0.2 m/s

Heat 2

Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 1 5 Mark Lewis-Francis 0.149 10.13 , 2 7 Aziz Zakari 0.188 10.19 3 6 Roland Németh 0.137 10.28 4 3 Salem Mubarak Al Yami 0.143 10.36 5 4 Darren Gilford 0.177 10.67 6 8 Khalil Al Hanahneh 0.172 10.76 7 2 Kakianako Nariki 0.183 11.62 — 9 Marc Burns Wind: −0.4 m/s

Heat 3

Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 1 8 Justin Gatlin 0.204 10.07 2 6 Kareem Streete-Thompson 0.156 10.15 , 3 9 Leonard Myles-Mills 0.133 10.21 , 4 4 Vicente de Lima 0.169 10.23 5 1 Andrey Yepishin 0.146 10.29 6 2 Georgios Theodoridis 0.141 10.32 7 5 Hadhari Djaffar 0.163 10.62 8 7 Sultan Saeed 0.239 11.72 — 3 Juan Sainfleur 0.164 Wind: −0.1 m/s

Heat 4

Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 1 6 Shawn Crawford 0.184 10.02 2 1 Obadele Thompson 0.141 10.08 , 3 4 Matic Osovnikar 0.112 10.15 , NR 4 5 Idrissa Sanou 0.175 10.33 5 3 Diego Ferreira 0.141 10.50 NR 6 9 Pierre de Windt 0.234 11.02 7 7 Chamleunesouk Ao Oudomphonh 0.202 11.30 8 8 Masoud Azizi 0.217 11.66 — 2 Hristoforos Hoidis Wind: +0.8 m/s

Heat 5

Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 1 2 Francis Obikwelu 0.165 10.09 2 5 Ronald Pognon 0.150 10.18 3 3 Jaysuma Saidy Ndure 0.157 10.26 , NR 4 8 Jarbas Mascarenhas 0.147 10.34 5 7 Hiroyasu Tsuchie 0.182 10.37 6 9 Adrian Durant 0.223 10.52 7 6 Nabie Foday Fofanah 0.158 10.62 8 4 Harmon Harmon 0.173 11.22 Wind: +0.1 m/s

Heat 6

Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 1 7 Nobuharu Asahara 0.162 10.33 2 3 Łukasz Chyła 0.167 10.35 3 4 Eric Pacome N'Dri 0.147 10.39 4 9 Ato Boldon 0.155 10.41 5 6 Issa Aime Nthepe 0.159 10.67 6 2 Gábor Dobos 0.131 10.68 7 8 John Howard 0.195 10.85 NR 8 5 Mohammad Shamsuddin 0.173 11.13 Wind: −1.1 m/s

Heat 7

Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 1 9 Asafa Powell 0.146 10.06 2 5 Jason Gardener 0.155 10.15 , 3 4 Joshua Ross 0.153 10.24 , = 4 1 André da Silva 0.145 10.28 5 8 Pierre Browne 0.169 10.32 6 7 Lamin Tucker 0.137 10.72 7 6 Kelsey Nakanelua 0.160 11.25 8 2 Sopheak Phouk 0.225 11.56 PB — 3 Djikoloum Mobele Wind: +0.9 m/s

Heat 8

Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 1 1 Maurice Greene 0.142 10.18 2 2 Dwight Thomas 0.135 10.21 3 8 Churandy Martina 0.152 10.23 4 3 Alexander Kosenkow 0.135 10.28 5 6 Prodromos Katsantonis 0.179 10.50 6 7 Chiang Wai Hung 0.157 10.70 7 9 Francis Manioru 0.143 11.05 8 5 Teymur Gasimov 0.179 11.17 9 4 Filipo Muller 0.181 11.18 Wind: −0.2 m/s

Heat 9

Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 1 9 Deji Aliu 0.191 10.39 2 2 Nicolas Macrozonaris 0.153 10.40 3 6 Gennadiy Chernovol 0.145 10.43 4 3 Souhalia Alamou 0.167 10.48 5 8 Christie van Wyk 0.148 10.49 6 4 Daniel Bailey 0.154 10.51 7 7 Gian Nicola Berardi 0.143 10.76 8 5 Carlos Abaunza 0.173 11.17 Wind: −1.4 m/s

Heat 10

Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 1 6 Kim Collins 0.154 10.11 2 3 Michael Frater 0.161 10.20 3 4 Nicconnor Alexander 0.139 10.22 4 7 Simone Collio 0.151 10.27 5 2 Eddy de Lepine 0.192 10.27 6 8 Xavier James 0.147 10.40 7 9 Sebastien Gattuso 0.152 10.58 =NR 8 5 Wilfried Bingangoye 0.206 10.76 Wind: +0.7 m/s

Quarterfinals

Qualification rule: The first three finishers in each heat (Q) plus the next fastest overall sprinter (q) qualified.

Quarterfinal 1

Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 1 4 Francis Obikwelu 0.165 9.93 , NR 2 5 Mark Lewis-Francis 0.162 10.12 , = 3 3 Dwight Thomas 0.149 10.12 , 4 6 Ronald Pognon 0.166 10.15 5 8 Shingo Suetsugu 0.150 10.19 6 2 Pierre Browne 0.150 10.21 7 7 Churandy Martina 0.152 10.24 8 1 André da Silva 0.136 10.34 Wind: 0.0 m/s

Quarterfinal 2

Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 1 4 Shawn Crawford 0.167 9.89 2 3 Obadele Thompson 0.156 10.12 3 7 Vicente de Lima 0.158 10.26 4 2 Matic Osovnikar 0.168 10.26 5 6 Deji Aliu 0.185 10.26 6 5 Nicolas Macrozonaris 0.161 10.28 7 1 Gennadiy Chernovol 0.154 10.42 8 8 Idrissa Sanou 0.178 10.43 Wind: 0.0 m/s

Quarterfinal 3

Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 1 4 Justin Gatlin 0.178 9.96 2 3 Jason Gardener 0.146 10.15 , = 3 5 Uchenna Emedolu 0.162 10.15 4 6 Nobuharu Asahara 0.151 10.24 5 2 Georgios Theodoridis 0.141 10.36 6 7 Roland Németh 0.151 10.38 7 8 Nicconnor Alexander 0.148 10.48 — 1 Eddy de Lepine Wind: +0.2 m/s

Quarterfinal 4

Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 1 4 Aziz Zakari 0.175 10.02 2 6 Kim Collins 0.152 10.05 , 3 5 Michael Frater 0.152 10.11 4 3 Frankie Fredericks 0.142 10.17 5 7 Joshua Ross 0.163 10.22 6 1 Alexander Kosenkow 0.113 10.24 7 2 Andrey Yepishin 0.164 10.29 8 8 Jaysuma Saidy Ndure 0.184 10.39 Wind: −0.1 m/s

Quarterfinal 5

Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 1 4 Maurice Greene 0.117 9.93 2 6 Asafa Powell 0.142 9.99 3 1 Leonard Myles-Mills 0.145 10.18 , 4 5 Łukasz Chyła 0.167 10.23 5 3 Kareem Streete-Thompson 0.162 10.24 6 8 Simone Collio 0.135 10.29 7 2 Jarbas Mascarenhas 0.134 10.30 8 7 Eric Pacome N'Dri 0.137 10.32 Wind: −0.2 m/s

Semifinals Qualification rule: The first four runners in each semifinal heat (Q) moves on to the final.

Semifinal 1

Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 1 3 Shawn Crawford 0.173 10.07 2 4 Justin Gatlin 0.191 10.09 3 6 Aziz Zakari 0.155 10.11 4 8 Obadele Thompson 0.160 10.22 5 5 Mark Lewis-Francis 0.163 10.28 6 2 Michael Frater 0.146 10.29 7 1 Ronald Pognon 0.144 10.32 8 7 Uchenna Emedolu 0.188 10.35 Wind: −1.6 m/s

Semifinal 2

Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 1 4 Asafa Powell 0.158 9.95 2 5 Francis Obikwelu 0.181 9.97 3 6 Maurice Greene 0.125 9.97 4 3 Kim Collins 0.150 10.02 , 5 8 Jason Gardener 0.147 10.12 6 1 Leonard Myles-Mills 0.139 10.22 7 7 Dwight Thomas 0.156 10.28 8 2 Vicente de Lima 0.163 10.28 Wind: +0.2 m/s

Final

In the final, the slowest to react was Justin Gatlin, still with the most powerful first steps, Gatlin led from the gun, with Kim Collins, the next slowest to react, also getting a typically fast start (typically in lane 1). A step behind, back from injuries, defending champion Maurice Greene, was fastest to react but running sideways in quicksand. He was joined by Francis Obikwelu and Shawn Crawford, who had a slight edge on the other competitors in the center of the track. Collins faded as Obikwelu, Crawford and Greene gained. Feeling his lead disappearing rapidly, Gatlin leaned early still maintaining the lead across the line. The tall Obikwelu perfectly timed his dip to clearly grab silver. Crawford's finish occurred two meters too late giving Greene another medal with the same time as his win four years earlier.

Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 3 Justin Gatlin 0.188 9.85 , 5 Francis Obikwelu 0.163 9.86 AR 7 Maurice Greene 0.151 9.87 4 4 Shawn Crawford 0.161 9.89 5 6 Asafa Powell 0.166 9.94 6 1 Kim Collins 0.175 10.00 7 8 Obadele Thompson 0.164 10.10 — 2 Aziz Zakari 0.178 Wind: +0.6 m/s

References

External links IAAF Athens 2004 Olympic Coverage