- published: 29 Feb 2016
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A world record is usually the best global performance ever recorded and verified in a specific skill or sport. The book Guinness World Records collates and publishes notable records of all types, from first and best to worst human achievements, to extremes in the natural world and beyond. The website RecordSetter has begun to take on the same territory, but with a more inclusive policy.
In the United States the form World's Record was formerly more common. The term World Best was also briefly in use.[citation needed] The latter term is still used in athletics events, including track and field and road running) to describe performances not recognized as an official world record: either because the event is a non-qualifying event (e.g. the 150 m run or individual events in a decathlon), or because it does not fulfil other criteria of an otherwise qualifying event (e.g. the Great North Run half-marathon, which has an excessive downhill gradient).
Malaysia is one country where world record-breaking has become something of a national fad. In India the setting and breaking of records is popular: the country has a local version of the Guinness Book of Records, called the Limca Book of Records, after a local soft drink.
The Honourable Usain St. Leo Bolt, OJ, C.D. ( /ˈjuːseɪn/; born 21 August 1986), is a Jamaican sprinter and a five-time World and three-time Olympic gold medalist. He is the world record and Olympic record holder in the 100 metres, the 200 metres and (along with his teammates) the 4×100 metres relay. He is the reigning Olympic champion in these three events, and is one of only seven athletes (along with Valerie Adams, Veronica Campbell-Brown, Jacques Freitag, Yelena Isinbayeva, Jana Pittman, Dani Samuels) to win world championships at the youth, junior, and senior level of an athletic event.
Bolt won a 200 m gold medal at the 2002 World Junior Championships, making him the competition's youngest-ever gold medalist at the time (since surpassed by Jacko Gill). In 2004, at the CARIFTA Games, he became the first junior sprinter to run the 200 m in less than 20 seconds with a time of 19.93 s, breaking the previous world junior record held by Roy Martin by two-tenths of a second. He turned professional in 2004, and although he competed at the 2004 Summer Olympics, he missed most of the next two seasons due to injuries. In 2007, he broke Don Quarrie's 200 m Jamaican record with a run of 19.75 s.