Not 21.33 for Taylor

Christopher Taylor is very fast. However, it turns out that he didn't run as fast as was first reported at the Tyser-Mills development meet at the G.C. Foster College for Physical Education on December 12.

Taylor, the World Youth 400-metre champion was credited with a 200-metre time of 21.33 seconds. However, official meet results now indicate that his actual time was 22.33 seconds.

The extra-fast time was widely reported and seemed believable since Taylor, a 16-year-old Calabar High school student athlete, has twice run the 200 metres in under 21 seconds this year. However, that time has been set aside. When contacted, officials involved in recording the Tyser-Mills results said that the extra fast time didn't come from them.

Times at the meet were captured by handheld stop watches. While that method can be accurate, the commonly accepted difference between automatic times and hand times is 0.24 seconds for races up to 200 metres and 0.14 for longer races. In addition, as is common in Jamaica, the times at Tyser-Mills had the appearance of automatic times because they were rendered to two places of decimal. Had international track convention been observed, Taylor's corrected time of 22.33 seconds would have been rounded up to 22.4.

The second fastest Class Two 200-metre time at the Tyser-Mills meet was recorded by Taylor's Calabar teammate Tyreke Wilson at 22.59 seconds. Taylor and Wilson, the ISSA Boys and Girls' Championships Class Three record holder, competed in separate heats.