100m sprint in 13 seconds

[Hellocatshome]

My just turned 13 years old son is a good sportsperson, plays cricket and football at quite a high level. He was at some sort of athletics thing for school today and did 100m in 13 point something seconds (he's good at sports not remembering things so we don't know what the last bit of the time was) I dont know anything about athletics but is that considered a good time for a 14 year old boy? It seems quite good to me but then maybe those last few seconds are really hard to loose?

"Malaysian teenager Muhammad Azeem runs 100m in 10.63; minister Syed Saddiq hails 14-year-old as 'our very own Usain Bolt'23 Apr 2019".

South China Morning Post.

Well it’s not bad he should be proud of it, but why does he need to lose ‘those last few seconds’? Is he aiming for a professional athletic career?

The screenshot is from the English schools athletics association for secondary schools esaa.net looks like 13 seconds is pretty good, but take into account 13 year olds doing own timing is not reliable! Timer could have been daydreaming at started the watch 0.5 or 1 second late..

Have a look at the Power of 10 website, which shows all times and distances for athletes of all ages. You can search by age and event and it gives an idea of what others are doing.

If he enjoys running, he could join a local athletics club and enter a few meetings. They're usually really short of teenage boys.

I’d say that’s very good, especially as he hasn’t had any running coaching. To get a UK ranking, he’d need to do it in 12.7 seconds,

It’s a decent enough time for a 13 yr old, however school/teacher timing is notoriously bad, so it’s not likely to be accurate and probably at least a second out. I’m a UKA trained timekeeper and it’s really difficult skill to learn.
It’s worth getting him down to your local club though.

My 11yr old DS runs 100m in 13.50, he runs competitively and trains with a well known London club. If your DS did that without training, I’d say it’s a good starting point.