Tennessee sprinter Christian Coleman blazed a trail in the Pacific Northwest that lit up the highlight reels and made national headlines on Wednesday night.
Atlanta’s Coleman, a junior with the Vols, set a new NCAA record in the 100 meters with a time of 9.82 second — smashing the previous record of 9.89 seconds.
Coleman’s run at the NCAA nationals meet in Eugene, Ore., represents the fastest 100 meter time run in the world this year, and it’s one of the top 10 100 meter run times (ninth) of all-time.
It was the fourth-fastest time in American history, trading Tyson Gay, former fellow Vol and Olympian Justin Gatlin and Maurice Green.
Coleman ranks in the NCAA’s top two all-time of the outdoor 100 and 200, and the indoor 60 meters and 200.
In addition to qualifying for the finals with his 100-meter time on Wednesday, Coleman also qualified for the finals in the 200 with a time of 20.21 — slowing up over the final five steps of that event.
