In these most uncertain times, Britney Spears provided everybody with a much-needed laugh earlier this week when she claimed to have smashed Usain Bolt's 100 metre world record.

In a now-deleted Instagram post from Thursday, the 38-year-old pop superstar announced that she had covered the sprint distance in just 5.97 seconds - and shared a screenshot as "evidence" of her accomplishment.

Proudly revealing her time, Spears captioned her photo: "Ran my first 5 !!!! Getting over your fear of pushing it in the beginning is key…. "

Such a feat would technically have made Spears the fastest human being on the planet, given that the time was 3.61 seconds faster than the current world record held by eight-time Olympic champion Bolt.

Amused followers were quick to mockingly respond to Spears, keen to point out the absurdity of her claims.

"Is your distance correct? Lol Usain Bolt's world record time for 100m dash is 9.58 seconds," commented one user. Indeed, even those that tried to give Spears the benefit of the doubt were confused by her arrhythmic.

"I'm confused! 100 meter dash? You mean 50 meter dash? Or 40 yard dash? Something ain't adding up. Sorry for being lost," questioned one follower who was trying to discover the error behind Spears' highly questionable maths.

It now appears, however, that there was no error to find - as Spears has backtracked on her claim,  clarifying that she was "only joking", before once again deleting the post.

Spears commented on the controversy she had caused as part of the caption for a later Instagram post which read: “Obviously I was joking about running the 100 metre dash in 5.97 seconds...The world record is held by Usain Bolt, which is 9.58 seconds… but you better believe I’m coming for the world record. #joking”.

Now we probably shouldn't be too hard on Britney, as she has recently made frequent offers of support to both neighbours and fans suffering as a result of the coronavirus outbreak. With that said, though, there did not seem to be much in the way of jest when she made her initial claims.

Assuming that she does, in fact, fancy breaking a world record over the distance as suggested, the female record of 10.49 seconds is currently held by Florence Griffith-Joyner.

Might the recent postponement of the Tokyo Olympics until 2021 possibly allow the pop icon her chance at glory after all? Get training Britney!!!