Fredericks Makes Close Run at World Record in the 100

Frankie Fredericks of Namibia beat world champion Donovan Bailey of Canada Tuesday night in winning the 100 meters in 9.87 seconds--only .02 seconds off the world record.

Fredericks’ time was the year’s best, and the third of all time, behind Leroy Burrell’s 9.85 and Carl Lewis’ 9.86. Britain’s Olympic champion, Linford Christie, also has run 9.87.

Fredericks was aided by a wind of 1.9 meters per second--just under the allowable of 2.0 for world-record purposes--during a chilly night.

Bailey also was beaten by Britain’s Darren Braithwaite, who ran 10.13. Bailey was third in 10.15.

“I had not expected to do this good, but obviously it is possible to run well in any conditions,” Fredericks said about the 50-degree weather.

“Obviously a world champion in the same race helped. I wanted to make sure of a good reaction time because Donovan comes back in the middle of the race.”

Fredericks smashed the Helsinki Olympic stadium record of 10.07 set by Lewis at the first World Championships in 1983.

Britain’s Jonathan Edwards, the world-record holder in the triple jump, also had the year’s top result. After three weeks of nursing a sore heel, the world champion jumped 58 feet 5 3/4 inches.