Having looked at the overall best athletes in the world in 2017, let’s now focus on just Sprinting and bring you those we think are the Top 10 Sprinters this season.
In a season that witnessed a lot of upsets at the World Championships, there was an emergence of sprinters who literally left their footprints on the track this year.
Let’s get into the nitty gritty and bring you these Top 10 Sprinters, starting with Part 1 of the story, counting down from No.10 to No.6.
10) Elaine Thompson
At No.10 is Olympic 100m/200m Champion Elaine Thompson, who is in a somewhat unfamiliar territory of not being at the top of the cherry.
Thompson had a World Championship to forget, failing to medal in the women’s 100m after placing 5th in a race many had considered her to be the overwhelming favourite.
Just before the World Champs, we asked if anyone could stop the Jamaican from claiming the world title, knowing that she was literally putting everything she had on that race.
Having opted out of the 200m, Thompson looked spurred on as she focused solely on the 100m, an event she didn’t participate in at the 2015 World Championships.
In London, Thompson easily clinched victory in her semifinal heat, crossing the line in 10.84s, the fastest of all the heats, and at that point, she had all but won the title in the books of many.
However, it didn’t go to plan for Thompson as a bad race execution saw her finish in 5th place with a time of 10.98s, behind Tori Bowie, Marie Ta Lou and Dafne Schippers who claimed the Top 3 spots.
Thompson shook off the disappiontment and came back to claim the Diamond Race trophy in Brussels where she won with a time of 10.92s, days after winning at the Birmingham Diamond League in 10.93s.
The 25-year old ran the two fastest times in the world this year, winning the Jamaican title with a World Leading time of 10.71s, bettering the 10.78s she recorded at Shanghai Diamond League.
Do you know that Thompson is the athlete with highest number of sub-11s races this season, eleven sub-11s this year more than any athlete?
9) Usain Bolt
At No.9 is the legendary Usain Bolt. He may have headed into the pleasurable ‘beaches’ of retirement and enjoying the moments off the track, but there’s no denying that he has cemented his status as the greatest of all time.
The whole world waited to give Bolt the perfect farewell from the sport he had made his own and brought glitz to, making many people follow Athletics because of the attending glamour trailing him.
However, in life, sometimes the scripts don’t come out as initially intended. Bolt finished 3rd in the men’s 100m clocking a time of 9.95s behind the two Americans: Justin Gatlin and Christian Coleman who took 1st and 2nd respectively.
Prior to the final, Coleman had finished ahead of Bolt in the semis, making it the first time the Jamaican would be defeated at a major championship since his first triumph at the 2008 Olympic Games when he scooped the double.
The usual Bolt doesn’t take part in many races, saving his best for the biggest occasions. He rather opted to run in just Ostrava, and only dipping under 10s for the first time in 2017 at the Monaco Diamond League where he posted a time of 9.95s. In fact, that was his best mark this season.
Just when Bolt looked like he would erase the ghosts of a disappointing outing, as he filed out to anchor Jamaica in the men’s 4x100m final, he pulled up while trailing behind Coleman and Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake of Great Britain, who eventually won the title.
Bolt is now out of the spotlight, but his place in history is assured, and until someone else breaks his World Record of 9.58s, he will remain the fastest man ever.
Do you know that Bolt wants to begin his professional football career in 2018, and has revealed “a lot” of clubs have reached out to sign him already.
8) Shaunae Miller -Uibo
At No.8 is Bahamian Shaunae Miller-Uibo. The quarter-miler may not have gotten every thing she set out for this season, but she had a lot to cheer about.
Miller-Uibo was the talk of the women’s 400m final when she appeared to have frozen at the line despite looking like she had the win in the bag.
While she stuttered under pressure, Phyllis Francis nicked the win and Nigerian-born Bahrainian athlete Naser Eid-Salwa finished 2nd, with Allyson Felix coming in 3rd.
If you want a recap of what we are talking about, you can watch the 400m again in the Youtube link below.
Miller-Uibo was comfortably in the lead in the last 30m, but the pressure got to her as she clipped her right leg and lost momentum, finishing 4th in 50.49s.
She didn’t make excuses or any fuss about that. Rather, she came back strongly in the 200m to ensure that she finished on the podium with a 3rd place finish of 22.15s.
In fact, that encouraged her to a greater finish to her season, and at the Brussels Diamond League, she clinched victory in the women’s 200m with a time of 21.88s, a new Bahamian Record that saw her win the first of two Diamond Race (DR) trophies this season.
She made it a double in Zurich where she won the women’s 400m, with a World Leading mark of 49.46s to win another trophy.
Out of the six fastest times in the women’s 400m, four of them were set by Miller-Uibo, and she ran two of the five fastest times in the 200m this season.
Do you know that Shaunae Miller-Uibo is married to a fellow athlete, Maicel Uibo whom she met while in college in the United States? He represents his country Estonia in the Decathlon.
7) Ramil Guliyev
At No.7 on our Top 10 sprinters in 2017 is Ramil Guliyev, an Azerbaijani-born naturalized Turkish sprinter.
We all knew Guliyev would be a threat, and yes possibly finish on the podium, but winning the title was a bit far fetched when considering who the favourites were, not until Andre De Grasse pulled out of the World Championships with an injury.
The overwhelming favourite became South Africa’s Wayde Van Niekerk, and even Isaac Makwala who had the World Lead of 19.77s.
However, it was Guliyev who went on to win the 200m title, winning Turkey’s first ever GOLD medal in the World Championships with a time of 20.09s.
Guliyev gave signs of what to expect when at the Paris Diamond League, he won with a time of 20.15s. He also clinched another Diamond League victory in Birmingham with a time of 20.17s.
Although he finished 3rd at the Brussels Diamond League, narrowly missing out on the Diamond Race trophy to Noah Lyles who won it after his triumph in 20.00s, he had already made a statement.
For Guliyev, it was a fulfilling season, especially being the first to win a GOLD medal for his adopted nation Turkey.
Surely he has come a long way from 2015 when he won double Bronze in Gwangju, South Korea at the World University Games.
Do you know that Ramil Guliyev was formerly being trained by his father Eldar Quliyev who died in 2010 from a heart attack?
6) Marie-Josée Ta Lou
Call her the African pride, Marie Josée Ta Lou at No.6 on our Top 10 rankings, has firmly established herself as an elite athlete to reckon with.
She’s no longer that African athlete lurking in the shadows of her countrywoman Murielle Ahouré, or Nigeria’s Blessing Okagbare. Rather, she has carved out her own path and embraced her destiny.
When we argued if anyone could stop Thompson, we included Ta Lou as a potential Top 3 finisher, not the main challenger. However, if that story were to be re-written, the Ivorian would have topped the chart.
Watching that epic 100m race again, it’s still hard to believe how Ta Lou was just a fraction away from a historic accomplishment.
Having led all through the race until that indecisive moment when she floundered a bit, which aided Tori Bowie to cross the line first, maybe we would still have been serenading Ta Lou with adulation.
To tell you how close Ta Lou was to history, Bowie snatched the victory by 0.01s to win in 10.85, while Ta Lou equaled her Personal Best of 10.86s that she set while finishing 4th in Rio.
Bowie crashed into the finish line, and some would argue that if not for her longer strides which gave her an advantage, Ta Lou would have been the eventual winner. You can watch the race below to relive those gripping moments all over again.
Having missed out on the 100m, Ta Lou made it double Silver and finished with an Ivory Coast National Record of 22.08s in 2nd place in the women’s 200m.
She nearly matched the African Record of 22.07s held by Nigeria’s Mary Onyali, which has stood for about two decades.
Ta Lou who only last year finished 4th both in the 100m and 200m, is now an athlete to reckon with, now upgrading to the enviable heights of constantly challenging for titles and no longer content with finishing outside the Top 3.
Do you know that Ta Lou wanted to become a footballer, until her older brother convinced her otherwise in 2008? Also, she studied Medicine at the Université d’Abobo-Adjamé in Abidjan.
