|
Track & Field-
News
Jamaica's Usain Bolt glided to a
new world record as he produced a stunning run in the Olympic 100m
final.
Bolt was well clear at 60m and although he eased down and started
to celebrate 15 metres from the line he still set a new mark of
9.69 seconds.
Richard Thompson finished second
while American Walter Dix came third but they were yards behind
the Jamaican.
"I wasn't worried about the
record. I didn't know I'd broken it until my victory lap," Bolt
told BBC Sport.
"When I ran the earlier round I
felt the world record [was possible], because it's a new track,
it's fast. But I came out here just to win. I'm so happy for
myself and my country.
"Me and my coach, we decided that I can take both the 100m and
200m. So I came here prepared to do that."
Bolt's Jamaican team-mate Asafa
Powell had been tipped as a possible rival but finished in fifth
place as Bolt produced a superlative performance.
Powell said, "I messed up big
time, my legs died on me. Usain ran an awesome race, I'm very
happy for him.
"I'm not sure what happened, I
just have to be happy for Usain. It's a sad time for me, I really
wanted to get that gold medal. But its quite obvious I wasn't
ready for the big stage yet."
Second-placed Thompson posted a
time of 9.89 seconds while Dix was two-hundredths of a second back
in third as six men broke the 10-second barrier.
"Words cannot describe how I feel right now, this is just a dream
come true for me," Thompson, from Trinidad and Tobago, said.
"I have to tip my hat to Usain
Bolt, he's a great competitor, a phenomenal athlete, and there was
no way anyone was going to beat him with a run like that.
"But it just feels good to come
in here, run in the Olympic Games, my first Olympic Games, and win
a silver medal and run a personal best at the same time. I
couldn't ask for anything more, thank God."
Earlier this year Bolt set a new
world record of 9.72 seconds to take the record away from Powell,
and the 21-year-old had looked in imperious form on his way to the
final, which world champion Tyson Gay failed to qualify for.
Powell had also looked in fine
form but from the gun it was clear there was only going to be one
winner.
The 6ft 5in Bolt was away as
quickly as anyone and when he hit the front with 50m to go it was
all over bar the shouting.
The only question was just how
fast a time he was going to set.
And despite easing down well
short of the line he took three-hundredths of a second off his
previous record in a display American legend Michael Johnson
described as "the greatest 100m performance in the history of the
event".
Johnson, a multiple Olympic champion who still holds the 200m and
400m world records, said: "He shut down with 10m to go. We have
never seen anything like it before.
"It's absolutely amazing. Asafa Powell and Tyson Gay cannot run
with him. He is a show unto himself."
Powell finished 5th in 9.95 with
another Jamaican, Michael Frater sixth in 9.96.
Bolt will now try to become the
first man to complete the 100m-200m double since Carl Lewis at the
Los Angeles Olympics in 1984.
The 200m heats start on Monday, with the final taking place on
Wednesday.
Earl Bailey
Editor - www.JamaicaWin.com |
