In which event does Usain Bolt hold the world record of 9.58 seconds?

Usain Bolt holds the world record for the 100 metres with a time of 9.58 seconds. He ran that race on 16 August 2009 in the final of the World Championships in Berlin, Germany.

Bolt’s performance lowered his own previous 100-metre world record of 9.69 seconds, set at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The improvement of 0.11 seconds was extraordinary at elite sprinting level, where records are usually lowered by only hundredths of a second.

The race was wind-legal: the recorded tailwind was 0.9 metres per second, below athletics’ maximum allowable assistance of 2.0 metres per second. Bolt’s average speed over the race was roughly 37.6 kilometres per hour, although he reached a much higher peak speed during the middle section.

The 9.58 mark is sometimes confused with Bolt’s 200-metre world record of 19.19 seconds or his 4 × 100-metre relay record. Those are separate events. His 100-metre record remains one of the defining performances in modern athletics.