Fastest Men on Earth Beijing 2008 Edition

All items from the 2008 Update Set are now included in this game

At first glance the 100 Metres track event may seem an odd choice for a sports replay game. Around 10 seconds of explosive action, nothing in the way of in-race tactics (if you discount the physiological warfare that takes place as the runners line up and get to their marks, more akin to two boxers eyeballing each other before a fight than to an athletics meeting), no 'decisions' for the replay gamer to make, just pure unleashed speed from starting blocks to tape. But an athletics sprinting coach will tell you differently.

Each part of the race, and the training manuals usually divide the 100 Metres into four distinct sections, Start, Pick-Up, Acceleration and Maximum Speed, require varying disciplines and techniques, and world-class sprinters all have their strengths and weaknesses, so this is what we have tried to focus on in this simulation, hopefully bringing to life the running characters of some of the All-Time-Great sprinters of the last hundred years. We have extended the training manual concept of four different sections into six, taking the runners progressively to 10m, 30m, 50m, 70m, 90m and 100m and within those six Sections each athlete's ability will vary to re-create his running style. And ability too, we hope. And here we must insert a caveat. In athletics to a degree not applicable to other timed sports performances have improved dramatically as training methods, diets and track surfaces have evolved and here we are trying to compare Charles Paddock with Maurice Green, Jesse Owens with Donovan Bailey.

To make this simulation 'work' we have had to use a benchmark, time wise, and up-grade the performances of athletes from earlier era to this level of performance. Because we felt that users would want to be able to get close to the current World Record (in the right circumstances with the right athletes) we have geared the simulation to 2001 season performances, assuming in doing so that the great sprinters of the past would have travelled that much quicker with all the (legal) advantages that their contemporary 'rivals' enjoy today. At the end of the day, of course, it is our judgement in all such matters, you may well disagree with that, and we can only say in our defence that we have been as objective as possible after lengthy and detailed research.