Decimal Places: Photofinish
Film info
Film summary
The story of a 60m sprint which, without decimals, would have resulted in a dead-heat.Transcript
Three of Britain's top sprinters are in training for one of the quickest races in athletics.
UK
1994
100-meter World Champion Linford Christie is preparing to take on Colin Jackson and Michael Rosswess in a 60-meter sprint.
Linford Christie, 100m Olympic gold medalist - "You see I know that Colin's there and he gets out pretty well. And I know that Michael's there, and you see, of course they all want it. Then, you know, I've got to make sure that I'm ready!"
After months of training, the race will take less than 7 seconds to complete.
It will be an occasion that calls for incredible precision.
"It doesn't matter how you get there, as long as you get there first!"
Precision Timing
At the other end of the athletics spectrum, the marathon is a long-distance event run over 26 miles, or nearly 42km.
Often, thousands of competitors take part.
Marathons take hours to complete but, despite this, finish times are still measured to the second.
For short sprints, like the 60m, an even more precise measurement is needed.
Just as a second is one-sixtieth of a minute, seconds themselves can be split into smaller parts like tenths or hundredths.
But in world-class sprints, sometimes even this is not enough.
Race Day February 19th 1994
UK
Finally, the three British athletes are ready to race.
As the athletes cross the line, it's impossible to tell who's won.
It's a photo finish.
The photograph reveals that a hundredth of a second separates Colin Jackson, at 6.57 seconds from Michael Rosswess and Linford Christie, who both finish in 6.56 seconds.
With both men crossing the finish line in the same hundredth of a second, the photograph is the only evidence that a part of Rosswess's body has crossed the line first.
Linford Christie, 100m Olympic gold medalist - "Right I'll tell you what, I'm glad this isn't a hundred meters otherwise I'd have retired!"
