World’s Fastest Man

to have the track world – and Florida State University assistant coach Ken Harnden’s cellphone – buzzing.
That’s what happens when you seemingly come out of nowhere to post the fastest 100-metre dash time in the world.
Almost as soon as Zimbabwean Makusha, a two-time national champion in the long jump, crossed the finish line in a shocking 9.97 seconds to win the ACC finals, Harnden’s cellphone was flooded with messages.
“Oh I’ve gotten texts from everyone,” he said. “From agents in Europe to the Nike rep to all the other coaches. I mean, obviously it’s a very big deal.”
Harnden represented Zimbabwe in the 400m hurdles at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia, before he hung up his spikes and turned his hand to coaching athletics at Florida State University.
What made Makusha’s time even more stunning was it was the first time he’d ever competed in the 100m at Florida State University.
The Zimbabwe native came to Florida State University as a long jump/sprints specialist, but had never run anything other than a leg of the 4x100m relay at Florida State University until this past weekend.
“I always thought of myself as a sprinter,” Makusha said. “But there just had never been the right time in college.”
It wasn’t as if the coaches didn’t know he was fast. It was that he could never quite get healthy enough to compete in both.
As a freshman, while battling through some injuries, Makusha, who was unearthed at Mandedza High School at Seke near Chitungwiza in Zimbabwe, concentrated on the long jump and wound up winning the NCAA title for the Seminoles’ national championship squad.
A few months later he finished fourth at the 2008 Olympic Games ion Beijing, China, – losing out on a bronze medal by one centimetre.
As a sophomore he started the season competing in both and actually posted the fourth-fastest 60m time in the nation heading into the NCAA indoor meet.
But a severe quad injury derailed any hopes of sprinting during the outdoor season – though he once again won a national title in the long jump.
Last year he did only one event because he still couldn’t get 100 percent healthy.
This year, finally, he was able to do both.
And the Florida State University coaches unleashed him on the rest of the track world at the ACC meet.
“It was our goal initially to run him on the 4x100m and in theory move him to the 100m,” Harnden said. “But we weren’t sure when that move was going to come. But ACC’s worked out well.”
With the addition of Makusha, Florida State University now has four of the top sprinters in the United States.
Seniors Brandon Byram and Charles Clark are two of the elite 200-metre runners in the country and fellow junior Maurice Mitchell not only finished just .06 seconds behind Makusha’s record time in the 100m at the ACC meet, but he also tied Walter Dix’s all-time conference record with his 20.19 time in the 200.
Only at Florida State University it seems could someone like Mitchell – who now owns the fastest 200 time in the country and the second-fastest 100 time – be overshadowed by another sprinter.
“Yeah,” Harnden said with a laugh. “He ties Walter’s record and nobody even talks about it.”
They were too busy talking about Makusha’s breakthrough performance instead.
“I kind of expected it to some extent,” Makusha said. “But I didn’t know I was going to run that fast. And looking at the clock and hearing everyone scream and being amazed, I don’t know, I just went numb. For a moment I didn’t know what was happening. I was like, wow.”
As Harnden’s cellphone can attest, a 9.97 is a “wow” moment for everyone.
In one 100-yard stretch of track in North Carolina, Makusha proved he is one of the fastest people on the planet – which of course is a big reason why he’s one of the top long jumpers in college history as well.
The speed he generates on the runway is frankly impossible for other competitors to match.
“Look, I think he’s a top five to eight sprinter in the world,” Harnden said. “But he’s still a long jumper first and a sprinter second. That’s the way he’s looking at it and that’s the way we want him to look at it. We want his pressure to come in the long jump. We want that to be his focus.”
After Makusha ran his startling time, he called back home to tell his brother about the accomplishment. He almost got hung up on.
“He told me to stop playing,” Makusha said with a smile. “He said there was no way I ran that. He couldn’t believe me. But I kept talking to him and I told him it really happened.”
In precisely 9.97 seconds Makusha went from an Olympic long-jump specialist to a potential Olympic sprinter as well.
He said he doesn’t plan to change his training schedule at all and isn’t even thinking about his pro prospects at this time.
Though he understands how many doors fly open when you fly down a track in under 10 seconds.
“I’ve put myself out there now,” he said. “And I’m just happy I’ve been blessed to be able to run that fast.” – Tallahasse.com.