Chronicle
100 m Olympic champion and ex-world record holder Jim Hines is dead. He was the first sprinter in the world to break the ten-second mark and thus wrote athletics history. The American died last Saturday at the age of 76, as the world association World Athletics announced on Monday, citing US officials.
Hines started out playing baseball until a track coach spotted his talent and developed him into a world-class runner. At the age of 17, he was among the 20 fastest sprinters in the world over 100 yards (91.44 meters).
At the 1968 US Championships, Hines ran a world record hand-timed time of 9.9 seconds. In the final of the Olympic Games in Mexico City on October 14, 1968, he won the 100 m final ahead of Jamaican Lennox Miller and his compatriot Charles Greene in an electronically timed 9.95 seconds.
9.95 faster than 9.90 seconds
It was initially unclear whether this time was an improvement on the world record, but the world association decided: the 9.95 seconds are faster than the hand-timed 9.9 seconds. This also made Hines the first runner to break the ten-second barrier using electronic timing.
In the 4 x 100 m relay, he ran with Greene, Mel Pender and Ronnie Ray Smith in 38.2 seconds for a second world record and second Olympic victory. He ended his career at the end of 1968 and was still under contract in the NFL American Football League for the Miami Dolphins and the Kansas City Chiefs.
