Fred Kerley is confident he can beat Usain Bolt’s 100m world record.
The US sprinter, who won the 100m silver medal at the 2020 Olympics and bronze in Paris this year, believes he would have already shattered Bolt’s time of 9.58 seconds if not for setbacks.
“World record next time I touch the 100m,” he tweeted back in May.
However, things didn’t quite work out the way Kerley expected.
His next race was at the New York City Grand Prix, where he drew attention in the warm up as he was spotted wearing Puma spikes, despite being signed with Asics at the time.
The sprinter then appeared to slip out of the blocks twice.
While he was not disqualified, he elected not to start the race and left the track after an intense discussion with officials.
After that incident, Kerley parted ways with Asics, and the 100m record still stands.
The 29-year-old was recently questioned about his tweet during an appearance on the Ready Set Go podcast, where he doubled down on the claim of beating Bolt.
“That was not putting people on notice…the next time I stepped on the track, it was supposed to be a world record because what I did in training, it was stupid,” he revealed.
“So if you translate that to the track meet, it would have been good. But New York happened, the way it’s supposed to, for my success.
“That’s how I knew I was getting back to Fred Kerley.”
Kerley is also confident he would be 100m gold medalist Noah Lyles in a one vs one race over 150m.
“I feel like 1v1 is actually good for the sport,” he said, showing interest in the kind of head-to-head races that are becoming more popular.
“A lot of head busters talk big because they get lucky in one race, but if you had World Athletics actually organizing these 1v1s, you could look at the stats.
“I could show you how many times I beat you, and you could show how many times you beat me.”
He went on to suggest that he would better Lyles’ personal best of 14.41 seconds over 150m.
“They gave him that time, but anyways…” Kerley said, stoking the fire for a possible showdown.
