Tyreek Hill is a fast man.
Throughout his NFL career, we’ve seen Hill’s speed consistently pose threats to defenses. This has been true whether he’s been catching passes from Alex Smith, Patrick Mahomes or Tua Tagovailoa.
But how would his speed compare to a track star? Christian Coleman, who has the world record at 60 meters, has a theory
Over the weekend, Hill handily won the 60-meter race at the USA Track & Field Masters Indoor Championships. Coleman weighed in on that race. He did note that while the competition wasn’t overwhelming, Hill’s time of 6.70 was something to be proud of.
“In my opinion it was impressive,” Coleman said, per TMZ Sports. “Major respect for getting out there and actually running,” Coleman said. “I would say for a season opener, 6.70, I don’t know when’s the last time he actually ran. So, it’s pretty impressive to me.”
“He knew what he was doing going to a masters event,” added Coleman. “Not going up against real pros who might have a chance to beat him.”
Coleman is not off base here. As fast as Hill is, his time of 6.70 doesn’t compare to Coleman.
Coleman set the 60-meter world record at the 2018 USA Indoor Track and Field Championships, with a time of 6.34. While he didn’t match his world record time at that year’s 2018 IAAF World Indoor Championships, Coleman did take first place.
Hill is clearly well below that time — but it’s not like he would have embarrased himself with that time either.
At those World Championships, the time of 6.70 would have been good enough for Hill to get out of the heats. In fact, it’s worth mentioning that Coleman’s heat time at those World Championships was 6.71. Top sprinters generally do just enough to qualify in the early races and Coleman’s semifinal and final times (6.45 and 6.37, respectively) were both significantly faster. Still, Hill has the wheels to beat some of the top sprinters in the world.
Coleman also believes that if Hill devoted his time and energy to sprinting, his time could be significantly lowered — just not by enough to beat Coleman.
“I think if he kept training and I think if he actually dedicated himself to lifting for track and set himself up to actually peak, I think he can go down to the 6.5 low range for sure,” Coleman said, per TMZ. “I don’t think he’d ever be able to beat me.”
And Coleman is willing to back his words up, even giving Hill the choice of distance.
“I would do any distance,” Coleman said. “We can go 10 meters, 40 yards, 60 meters, 100, 200. I like my odds.”
“I would be up for the race,” he added. “If I was him I wouldn’t take the race. I would love to maybe set something up, if we could do something for charity. I would be down for the race.”
