Jamaican sensation Usain Bolt stormed to 100m gold in 9.63 a new Olympic record and the second fastest time in history.
The sprinter who appeared to jog the last 15m of his semi-final got off to a poor start but showed why he is considered the greatest ever by blowing the field away over the final thirty meters.
Blake was beaten into silver
On an evening where every single competitor had run under 10 seconds this year both Yohan Blake and Tyson Gay looked like challengers to Bolts crown. Even the previous world record holder Asafa Powell was fancied after clocking an incredible 88th professional sub 10-second time in the semi-final.
It was however Bolt who stole all the headlines by beating teammate Blake into the silver position by over a tenth of a second. Blake had beaten Bolt at the Jamaican selection meeting last year and gave his compatriot a big scare over the first fifty meters. The USA’s Jason Gatlin came in third holding off Tyson Gay to add another medal to his collection.
Bolt told reporters:
“I was happy when I went out in the first round, I felt I could do this. I was slightly worried about my start. It was not the best reaction in the world but I stopped worrying about it and executed it and it worked.
The pundits wasted little time in calling Bolt the greatest ever and this was underlined by stats which showed he had beaten people who clocked the fastest times ever for their respective positions. Bolt also became the first man of the “modern” era of athletics to retain an Olympic 100m gold.
In the end they all came, they all tried and Bolt simply blew them away.
Oliver Dickinson
