Tate Taylor ran 19.75 to win the Prefontaine Classic men's 200m — into a -0.9 headwind, out of lane 3, at 18 years old — beating Olympic champion Letsile Tebogo by 0.18 seconds. Taylor is now the third-fastest U20 200m runner in history, behind only Erriyon Knighton (19.49) and Gout Gout (19.67), and ahead of Usain Bolt's 19.93.
He's also the second-youngest ever Diamond League sprint winner, behind Knighton by 66 days.
In this video, we break down what actually happened in Eugene and how Taylor's 19.75 compares to Gout's much-discussed 19.67 from earlier this year. Gout's race had a massive tailwind that lifted the entire field — most competitors ran outlier PBs they haven't repeated since. Taylor's race had a headwind that slowed nearly everyone else down: only fourth-place Courtney Lindsay ran within 0.02 of his season best. Using a standard wind calculator, Taylor's run converts to approximately 19.70 in still conditions, while Gout's converts to 19.79. On adjusted numbers, Taylo...