While Georgia sophomore Christopher Morales Williams was denied an indoor world record due to an issue with the starting blocks, the sprinter said it does not take anything away from his remarkable achievement.
The Canadian teenager clocked 44.49 seconds in the 400 meters at the SEC indoor championships Saturday, a blistering time briefly celebrated as a world record before officials confirmed that it would not be ratified.
"It doesn't take away how fast I ran. It's still the world's fastest time," Morales Williams told Reuters.
The blocks were not connected to the Starter Information System, which detects false starts and is required by World Athletics for a record to be ratified, meaning Kerron Clement's time of 44.57 set in 2005 remains the official mark.
Morales Williams, a 19-year-old from Vaughan, Ontario, said the blocks at next week's NCAA championships in Boston do meet world standards. But potentially running a record that counts is not at the front of his mind.
"It will put some pressure on me, that's why I'm trying to not think about it too much, because everyone's going to be like, 'He's got to break it again,'" Morales Williams said. "But honestly, if I run my best, if I run what I can do, then it should be a world record. Just by running a PB [personal best], that's a world record."
Morales Williams knew he was flying along at a fast pace last weekend in Fayetteville, Arkansas. He had no idea how fast.
"Just finishing, I felt amazing," Morales Williams said. "I knew I had won the race with 100 meters to go, and I just kept running and running because I just wanted to win so bad.
"The [time] was unexpected. Some people say I accidentally broke the world record because I really wasn't planning for it at all."
The time was a half-second faster than the Olympic standard, which has led to an overhaul of his goals entering the summer.
"My goal originally was to just make the [Paris Olympic] final and now my goal is to shoot for the podium," he said.
His achievement has also started to sink in.
"Every hour or so, I would realize, 'I broke the world record!' I'd be freaking out," he said. "It's just insane that it happened and doesn't feel real. But now I'm starting to believe it, you know, getting used to that fact it all happened in 44 seconds."