Bolt - 9.76s!

[Mosiah]

Bolt himself said he might have eased up on his last 2 strides, which works out to around 3 yards.

LOL!!!

[Karl]

Unbelievable!

UNBELIEVABLE!
Quarrie, Stewart lavish praise on Usain Bolt's earth-shattering 9.76sec run

BY KAYON RAYNOR Senior staff reporter
raynork@jamaicaobserver.com
Tuesday, May 06, 2008



DONALD Quarrie and Raymond Stewart, two of Jamaica's best ever sprinters, have described Usain Bolt's 9.76-second performance last Saturday as unbelievable.


Usain Bolt reacts after his blistering 9.76-second performance in the 100 metres at the Jamaica International Invitational Meet at the National Stadium on Satuday night. (Photo: Bryan Cummings)

Quarrie, the 1976 Montreal Olympic 200-metre gold medallist, yesterday told the Observer that Bolt surprised everyone in attendance at the fifth staging of the Jamaica International Invitational Meet.

"No one expected it," Quarrie said. "My thing was let's hope he can run under 10 seconds, so had he ran even 9.98, I would have been very pleased (but) he ran exceptionally well and I think it just went through the roof with the crowd, everyone was happy, everyone was surprised and we are looking forward to him doing that sort of performance again outside of Jamaica," added Quarrie, who served as athlete's liaison for the event, which is one of a select group of Area meetings where points can be acquired by athletes to qualify for the IAAF/VTB Bank World Athletics Final, to be held on September 13-14 in Stuttgart.

Stewart, the 1987 World Championships silver medallist in Rome, said Bolt looked pretty good from start to finish. "The acceleration was real clean in terms of his last 40 metres and I think right now he's telling us that, if you have two guys back home that can run 9.76, I mean, who to tell what the next generation of kids can do," Stewart told the Observer from Texas, yesterday, having seen a video clip of the race.

"...and I think if Bolt can hold it up all the way to the Olympics it will be great," he added, noting that Mills, his (Stewart's) former coach, deserves a lot of respect, "because he continues to do a good job".

Bolt stunned the world when he posted 9.76secs - the second fastest time in history - shaving 0.27secs off his previous life-time best of 10.03. Quarrie believes Bolt can improve in his upcoming competitions.

"I think it's how you prepare for those, you don't dwell on what you have done, but you keep building on what you have done, trying to maintain that standard and hope that you can put together better races in your other events and even a better race in the 100m because the capability of him running fast in there, the ability to run fast in the 200m will be there, but at the same time, executing around the curve (and) running is most important in the 200m," reasoned Quarrie, who won the sprint double at the 1970 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Stewart concurs with Quarrie on Bolt's exploits, a distance for which the 20-year-old established the national record of 19.75 last season. "As far as I can see that top end speed that he has towards the end, anything is possible at this point...I can't really predict a world record, but I know he can run 19 and change.whatever the change is, it's for us to see when that time comes," Stewart posited.

Last year Quarrie told this newspaper that Bolt, who clocked 45.35 at the age of 16, could be one of the best quarter-milers in the world - a point that he still holds. "I think he still has the ability to run a fantastic 400 and what it (9.76sec) has done now, is widen his range to being able to run a good 100m, a 200m and the 400m at the highest level of track and field," Quarrie affirmed.

[Karl]

Former coaches ecstatic over Bolt's heroics

Former coaches ecstatic over Bolt's heroics
DANIA BOGLE, Observer staff reporter
bogled@jamaicaobserver.com
Wednesday, May 07, 2008



Fitz Coleman and Pablo McNeil, former coaches of Usain Bolt, have both expressed delight at the athlete's phenomenal 9.76 seconds clocking in the 100m at the Jamaica International Invitational at the National Stadium on Saturday.

Bolt recorded the second fastest 100m of all time, just two hundredths of a second slower than the world record (9.74) held by Jamaica's Asafa Powell, in winning the event at the Area Permit Meeting.

"It means that he's now truly an elite athlete," Coleman, who coached Bolt between 2003 and 2004, told the Observer.

McNeil, who helped condition Bolt at William Knibb High School in Trelawny, was in tears as he shared with the Observer his joy over Bolt's achievement.
"I was in ecstasy," he told the Observer. "Since 2001 I have said that he (Bolt) can run as fast as he wants to run, depending on the competition that he's in." Coleman guided Bolt for a season to his first Olympic Games in Athens in 2004 and also guided him to the World Junior 200m record (19.93) at the 2004 Carifta Games in Devonshire, Bermuda.

He thinks in terms of overall performance, Bolt could be ranked as a top three athlete with the capacity to excel over the 100m, 200m and 400m events.

"Perhaps you may think of only a Herb McKenley and possibly Michael Johnson who have done that kind of range, so it's something I would love to see him continue to do," Coleman said.

Track & field analyst, Hubert Lawrence, agreed with this assessment, citing a more contemporary group of athletes who are able to perform at the highest standard over the three distances.
"I think Bolt has shown that alongside Wallace Spearmon on the men's side and Allyson Felix and Sanya Richards on the women's side, he is an all-round sprinter who can be good at 100m, 200m and 400m... they are a special breed," he stated.

Meanwhile, McNeil, a former national 200m champion who watched Bolt's performance on television, said the latter has the talent which only needs the right elements to help him reach the pinnacle.
"He has that extra-dimensional speed so that most of what is needed is conditioning and focusing and he satisfied me almost to the max when I saw him run in the 100m where he went into his element and had something left over to almost equal or break Asafa Powell's record," McNeil said.

According to Lawrence, the conditions were right for Bolt on Saturday.
"Several false starts... Bolt didn't move at all... he had a good technical race, a good start - especially for someone 6ft 5in - good acceleration; had that top-end speed which you would expect for someone who has 19.75 over 200m."
He said the Mondo track at the Stadium is also one which would encourage fast times.
"Kingston is a great place to sprint. That is a good track, a lot of fast times on that track and in addition, the wind was high but within the legal allowance (+1.8 m/s)."

McNeil, in the meantime, had what could be regarded as cautionary words for Bolt's competition.
"It's going to take a lot to take him down. He'll have to take himself down and the world of American sprinters are in trouble between now and the Olympics," he declared.

[Mosiah]

People forget (or don't know) that when Asafa set the record the wind was +1.7m/s.