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First sprinter to run 100m in under 10 seconds dies
US sprinter Jim Hines, the first man to run the 100m in under 10 seconds, has died at the age of 76.
He broke the record in 1968 when he recorded a hand-timed 9.9 seconds at the US Championships. Hines then broke his own record shortly after while winning gold at the 1968 Olympics, where an electronic timer in Mexico City recorded him at 9.95. His record held for nearly 15 years until Calvin Smith ran a time of 9.93 in 1983.
That is the longest length of time an athlete has held the record for the men’s 100m since the International Amateur Athletic Foundation began keeping track – 110 years ago.
His death was announced in a statement by World Athletics. The organisation said it is “deeply saddened” by the news. Both the Olympics and USA Track and Field shared tributes to Hines on Twitter. “The sport has lost a legend,” USA Track and Field said.
Hines was born in the state of Arkansas in 1946 but was raised in Oakland, California.
He had an early love of sport, namely baseball, but showed a real talent for sprinting as a teenager. He attended Texas Southern University where he ran for the Tigers track team before competing in national championships and the Olympics.
In addition to winning the 100m at the Mexico Olympics, he was also part of the US 4x100m relay team which won a gold.
He ended his sprinting career shortly after the Olympics and joined the NFL. He spent three years in the league, playing for the Miami Dolphins and the Kansas City Chiefs.
(BBC Sports)
Latest News
Ministerial Consultative Committee unanimously consent to canceling the nominations submitted for the Local Government Elections
The Ministerial Consultative Committee on Public Administration, Home Affairs, Provincial Councils & Local Government chaired by Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena as well as the Minister of Public Administration, Home Affairs, Provincial Councils and Local Government unanimously consented to cancel the nominations submitted for the Local Government Elections given that those who have submitted nominations have faced great difficulties due to the postponement of the elections.
The lower house of the Indian parliament has passed a bill guaranteeing a third of seats for women in the parliament and state assemblies.
First proposed in 1996, the bill had been pending for decades amid opposition from some political parties.
On Wednesday, the Lok Sabha passed it with near unanimity after hours of fierce debate. The bill will now require the approval of lawmakers in Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian parliament. If passed here, it will be sent to the Indian president for approval and become law.
But it is still some way from being implemented as that would depend on the completion of India’s census. The exercise, conducted every 10 years, was set to be held in 2021 but was delayed by the coronavirus pandemic and is now expected to take place in 2025. Reported plans to redraw boundaries of assembly seats to increase the overall number of constituencies, known as delimitation, could further complicate the bill’s implementation.
The passing of the bill is expected to boost the fortunes of the governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the general elections next year.
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi thanked MPs who voted for the bill in Lok Sabha. He called it a “historic legislation” that will enable greater participation of women in the political process. The bill was passed after 454 MPs from across party lines voted in its favour with only two against it.
The Lok Sabha debated the legislation for nearly eight hours, with several members of the Opposition raising concerns about its implementation even as they voiced their support. Former Congress president Sonia Gandhi said the party supported the proposed legislation but demanded its immediate implementation. “How many years will they have to wait, two, four, eight?” Ms Gandhi asked. “Delaying this would be doing gross injustice to women.”
Several opposition MPs have also demanded a separate quota for women belonging to Other Backward Classes (OBCs). Hinduism’s caste system puts Brahmins or priests at the top, and Dalits (formerly untouchables) and Adivasis (tribespeople) at the bottom. In between are a multitude of lower and intermediate castes, which are roughly believed to constitute about 52% of the population, and are recognised as Other Backward Classes or OBCs. While India’s census has always recorded the population of Dalits and Adivasis, it has never counted the OBCs.
The proposed bill provides for one-third of the seats, which are already reserved for Dalits and tribespeople, to be reserved for women. But it excludes a similar sub-quota for women who belong to OBCs.
Speaking in parliament on Wednesday, Ms Gandhi said the government should conduct a caste census – or a count of OBCs – and extend the benefits of the proposed law to women from those groups as well. Some other opposition MPs called the move an eyewash by the ruling party.
MP Asaduddin Owaisi, one of the two votes against the bill, said the current bill would only benefit upper caste women.
(BBC)
A special search operation conducted by the Navy in the Mankuliya Lagoon of Negombo today (21st September 2023) led to the apprehension of a dinghy loaded with over 400kg of Kerala cannabis with an estimated street value of over Rs. 132 million
The seized consignment of Kerala cannabis and the dinghy were handed over to the Negombo Excise Station for onward legal action
Sri Lanka’s foreign reserves up by USD 2billion over the past year – Acting Finance Minister
President Wickremesinghe meets US President Joe Biden in New York
Ministerial Consultative Committee unanimously consent to canceling the nominations submitted for the Local Government Elections
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