Stupendous achievement!!!

[Islandman]

Yeah a true we overdue for this.

You remember Sammy? What a talent that was!

[Mosiah]

He was, but his record was 20.8, if I am not mistaken.

[Sir X]

Usain Bolt blazes to top of 100-meter lore ....YAM POWER!

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Posted: August 16, 2008
Jay Weiner
For Sporting News




BEIJING -- The world was watching. So, Usain Bolt, the Reggae Runner, figured he'd break the world's record.
No problem, mon.

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"Quiet on the track," the public address announcer could have said. "A machine is revving up. He is aptly named Bolt, and frankly, he's about to turn the Olympic 100-meter race into a laugher."
Even Bolt, 21, who looks more like a lean NBA guard than a muscular sprinter, had a couple of yuks during his eye-blinking 100-meter trip down the Bird's Nest track Saturday night.
It took him a grand total of 9.69 seconds, fastest ever.
The Olympic 100-meter men's race is the most relatable of this global track meet. We've all done this race. We've all sprinted down our street, in our schoolyard, at camp against a neighbor, a cousin, a bullying challenger.
It's not a mile. There's no strategy. No blocking. No pacing. It's pure energy and human motoring. It's guys in shorts and T-shirts going as fast as their muscles will allow.
"Who's the fastest of all?'' is almost a fairy tale question.
The title of "World's Fastest Man" is a glamorous one, a lucrative one. It has also, over the past 20 years -- thanks to Ben Johnson and Justin Gatlin -- become a somewhat tainted title. Some guys get fast artificially.
No indication here that's Bolt's problem. Except, it's being reported today that Bolt's father, Wellesley Bolt, is attributing his son's emergence as a 100-meter guy to "yam power."
Lots of sweet potatoes in Jamaica, where Bolt lives; his victory Saturday made him the first Jamaican 100-meter Olympic gold medalist.
The dad told a reporter in Jamaica that Usain likes the stuff, and locals believe the sweet potato is like medicine. Whewww. A quick check of the World Anti-Doping Agency website shows yam is not on the banned substance list. Yet.
But we digress.
Saturday night at the Bird's Nest, it really felt like the Olympics. The seats were filled in the 90,000-seat edifice. From men's long jump to women's shot put, lots was going on. Flashes from cameras were popping everywhere. All kinds of music blared from the clear-as-a-bell sound system. Larger-than-life highlights of athletes could be seen on jumbo scoreboards.
It was all a buildup to the men's 100, the final event of this clear, somewhat cool Beijing night.
The gun sounded and, in Bolt's case, as always, it took his 6-5 body a little bit of time to get rolling. He is, remember, the World Championship silver medalist in the 200-meters and didn't start competing in the shorter sprint until just this year.
By 40 meters into the centerpiece race he was zooming -- in his gold Pumas -- like no man before him. By 75 meters, he'd separated himself so fully from the pack he seemed to get bored.
He turned to his right and saw photographers trying to click fast enough to catch an image of him. But he didn't see any competitors in this view. No one was beside him. They were all in his gold-and-green dust.
There, with maybe 15 meters to go, he dropped his arms as if to say to everyone watching, "Catch me if you can." Even before he crossed the finish line, he slapped his heart with his right hand, a la Kevin Garnett.
The clock said 9.69, breaking his own world record that he set in May by .03 of a second. But for his shenanigans, it could have been faster. Much faster.
"I wasn't bragging," he said of his slowdown before the finish line. But he whipped silver medalist Richard Thompson of Trinidad and Tobago by two-tenths of a second. American Walter Dix finished at 9.91 for the bronze.
You may have noticed that Bolt's countryman Asafa Powell hasn't been mentioned yet. Nor has American Tyson Gay. An oversight, you figure.
Nope. Gay, who won the 100-meter and 200-meter world championships last year, failed to get to the final race. He'd been nursing his left leg since pulling his hamstring in the first round of the 200-meter races at the Olympic trials five weeks ago.
He simply wasn't fit or fast enough. He finished fifth in the heats with a time of 10.05.
"It was kind of devastating,'' he said. "My hamstring feels good; it's not bothering me. I think I just ran out of time."
Powell got to the final, but finished fifth at 9.95. It was that fast of a race. Six of the eight finalists broke 10 seconds.
These Olympics are really getting good. Swimmer Michael Phelps has given the Games a serial victor, a streak, which is a natural attention builder. We'll see Sunday (Saturday night in the U.S.) if Phelps can pocket gold medal No. 8.
Now, there's Bolt, who will seek his second gold in his specialty, the 200 meters, on Wednesday. He'll surely race in the 4x100-meter relay for Jamaica, and there's whispering that Jamaica may even put Bolt on the 4x400 relay, even though he has no real experience at that distance. But when you're hot, you're really hot.
If Bolt does race in the 4x400 -- and it's all speculation now -- he could be looking at four golds and immortality that only Jesse Owens and Carl Lewis share.
Saturday, after Bolt won without doubt, he removed his gold shoes. He posed with them for every cluster of photographers in the stadium. (Great marketing for Puma, which is far behind adidas and Nike in this Chinese market.) He spread his long arms like wings and "flew" as he took a victory lap. He wrapped himself in the flag of Jamaica.
Soon after, in the Bird's Nest, in Beijing, China, as the massive crowd filed out, the loud speakers blared generic reggae music. After all, he's officially the World's Fastest Man now. And, when you're the "WFM," people are sensitive to your likes and dislikes.

SPEAK OUT ON

[Sir X]

Bolt breaks 100-meter record, wins Olympic gold

By HOWARD FENDRICH – 2 hours ago
BEIJING (AP) — Pure speed.
It emanated from those loping, waist-high strides 6-foot-5 Usain Bolt churned with his golden spikes — untied lace and all — to win the 100-meter Olympic gold medal and break his own world record Saturday night.
It was there for all to see, too, in the "Is that really possible?!" gap of several feet between the Jamaican and the rest of the field at the finish. And, of course, in those bright, yellow numbers on the red-and-black trackside clock blaring the official time: 9.69 seconds.
Pure joy.
It radiated from Usain Bolt's wide eyes as he playfully nudged an opponent during the prerace stroll through the stadium hallways, and, moments later, when he clowned with one of the volunteers at the start line before handing her his black backpack.
It was there for all to see, too, in his "How good am I?!" mugging for the cameras with about 20 meters to go, already certain victory was steps away — outstretched arms with palms up, slap to his chest while taking the last of his oh-so-long 41 strides, leaning back to enjoy the moment instead of leaning forward in effort. And in the arms-swaying dance moves he showed off as reggae music flowed from the loudspeakers to help him celebrate.
"I was having fun," Bolt said. "That's just me — I like to have fun."
Oh, did he have a blast on this night, making obvious he is head-and-shoulders above the competition — and not merely because he really is head-and-shoulders above the competition, towering above foes in an event where no world record-holder over the last two decades has been this tall and where some didn't even reach 6 feet.
Those lanky legs allow Bolt to cover more ground, but his turnover for each stride also takes longer. He might just be turning the dash into a big man's event, though.
Bolt's sudden emergence truly began May 5 in Jamaica, when he ran 9.76 seconds, just shy of countryman Asafa Powell's then-record 9.74. This was someone to watch. Then, on May 31 in New York City, Bolt broke Powell's mark by finishing in 9.72.
Now that is gone, too, and Bolt's 0.20-second margin of victory matched the largest in an Olympic 100 final over the last 40 years.
"He's just a phenomenal athlete," said Trinidad and Tobago's Richard Thompson, the NCAA champion from LSU who won the silver by finishing in 9.89, "and I don't think anyone would have beaten him with a run like that today."
Certainly not. Bolt turned in as transcendent a show as Olympic track and field has seen in years, perhaps dating to Michael Johnson's world-record 19.32 seconds in the 200 meters at the 1996 Atlanta Games.
That mark could be next for Bolt, who considers the 200 his specialty. The heats for that event begin Monday, and the final is Wednesday, a day before his 22nd birthday.
"It definitely brings track back," said Walter Dix of the United States, the bronze medalist in 9.91.
Back to the front pages. Back from being ignored, spurned even, after a series of drug cases that stripped medals and credibility.
It's all particularly remarkable when you consider that Bolt — from the same yam-farming Trelawny parish in his Caribbean nation that was home to Ben Johnson — only began competing in the dash 13 months ago.
"I told you all I was going to be No. 1," Bolt said, "and I did just that."
Even though his left shoelace was dangling, the knot undone. Even though he skidded out of the starting blocks with the seventh-slowest reaction time in the eight-man final. Even though as recently as this month, Bolt left some doubt as to whether he would even contest the 100 in Beijing, because he didn't want to disrupt his preparation for the 200.
The talk for weeks has been about how Bolt might hold up in the four-round format at the Olympics, and how he'd do squaring off against Powell and reigning world champion Tyson Gay of the United States.
That didn't pan out. Gay, who acknowledged he paid for being sidelined the past 1 1/2 months after injuring his left hamstring at the U.S. Olympic trials, didn't even make the final, finishing fifth in his semi. Powell, meanwhile, was fifth in the final for a second consecutive Olympics, adding to his reputation for flopping on the big stage.
"Usain was spectacular," Powell said. "He was definitely untouchable tonight. He could have gone a lot faster if he had run straight through the line."
How low might Bolt be able to push that time?
9.65?
9.59?
"Anything is possible. The human body is changing, so you never know," Bolt said. "I aim just to win, but when I saw the replay, I was amazed."
So was everyone else: the competition, if you can really use that term to describe the other runners; the 91,000 or so fans whose photo flashes filled the still night air; the millions watching on TV.
Years from now, people will look at the images from the finish of the men's 100 meters at the 2008 Olympics and ask: Was Usain Bolt given a head start?
Was it possible for one man to end up that far ahead of seven other men, seven other elite sprinters, the best the world has to offer?
It was, after all, the first Olympic 100 in which six men finished in under 10 seconds. One of them, sixth-place finisher Michael Frater of Jamaica, described Bolt's new record this way: "No one will get near it."
Well, perhaps no one other than Bolt.
There were other events on this clear night, other medals awarded. Nataliia Dobrynska of Ukraine won the heptathlon, with Hyleas Fountain earning a bronze for the first U.S. medal in that event since 1992. Valerie Vili won the women's shot put, giving New Zealand its first Olympic gold medal in track and field since 1976. The favorites advanced to Sunday's semifinals in the women's 100.
Ho-hum.
Nothing that could help restore some of track and field's luster the way a dazzling sprinter can.
His coach wanted Bolt to add the 400 to his repertoire instead of the 100, figuring height would help at the longer distance. But Bolt insisted on taking on the shorter event, in part, he admits, because it's, well, shorter. Less taxing. Less time spent running, sweating, working out.
Bolt enjoys cars — speed, clearly, is what drives the guy — and, like many twentysomethings, he likes to go out with pals and dance. He's been frank about realizing he needed to go to the gym more and party less to fulfill the potential that's been evident since he became the youngest-ever male world junior champion in the 200 at age 15.
In some ways, he still is a kid at heart. His Saturday morning began with some television-watching, followed by some chicken-nugget-eating. Then he turned the TV back on, before deciding to take a three-hour nap.
In the evening, a very special 9.69 seconds — read those numbers again, slowly — changed his life. After he kissed those shoes of his, and posed for photo after photo, Bolt finally walked barefoot off the rust-colored track that will always be meaningful to him and his sport. He was handed a telephone: Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding was on the line.
Later, after Bolt left the stadium's drug-testing area, he was mobbed by Olympics volunteers who wanted autographs on scraps of paper or their sky-blue shirts. They wanted photos of him.
And then along came a car and driver, and Bolt slid into the front seat.
The "World's Fastest Man" is enjoying the ride.

[Sir X]

Farthest from Bolt was Patton, who clocked a 10.03, but he was non-plussed about his eighth-place showing. Instead, he spoke admiringly of Bolt.
"The guy's a freak of nature," Patton said. "You guys saw it for yourself. I just happened to have a front-row seat."
(Photo by Erich Schlegel/Dallas Morning

[Sir X]

Jamaican bolts to a new record




August 16, 2008
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BY GREG COUCH Sun-Times Columnist
BEIJING -- You're nervous at first, because everyone is so hyped, and they're blaring that loud, melodramatic intro music. Everyone's taking pictures, the crowd is bubbling energy. It's the Olympic 100-meter dash, the signature event of the Games. The winner is the fastest person on earth.
At 50 meters, you're out of breath, at 70 every muscle in the body tightens, at 85 your lungs are going to explode, and at the finish line, you can't take it anymore. Your body is melting down, and your brain moving too fast.
» Click to enlarge image
Usain Bolt is now the fastest man of all time.
(AP)




Well, that's how I felt watching the race, anyway. I can't really speak for Usain Bolt, who is now the fastest man of all time.
He did it in 9.69 seconds, breaking his old world record by .03. And it could have been faster. He let up at the end, a seven-step dance of turning his palms to the sky, looking to the side to mug for cameras, pounding his heart, even turning sideways for a flashy finish. Seven steps is more than one-sixth of the race.
Why did he do it? Why not run hard all the way through to see what you could have done?
"The crowd came to see a performance," he said. "I am the Olympic champion. I'm just happy with that."
Yes, but how fast could he have gone without the showboating?
"A 9.55, or something like that," said Marc Burns, who finished seventh. "You probably need to jump in a small automobile to be able to do that."
The race was billed as the greatest of all time, which was not only accurate, but also perfect in tenor. But it wasn't exactly as planned. Jamaicans Bolt and Asafa Powell, and American Tyson Gay, were supposed to dominate. But Gay, the world champ, failed in a qualifying race, having lost his edge while recovering from a strained hamstring. And Powell finished fifth.
Burns, Powell's friend, said he was stunned during the race to see Powell running even with him:
"I was thinking `I'm sitting in medal contention or he's folding from whatever pressure was going on."
Powell was folding. And that's what's so surprising, how important mentality is in a 9.69-second race.
It's everything. And it explains why Bolt let up at the end. To see him do that, is to be angry at first, for what he had thrown away.
But the reason he won the race so easily, that cocky bravado, is the same reason he pulled up to say "cheese." Doing it didn't ruin a thing. In fact, it added to the race.
"I wasn't celebrating, I was just happy," he said. And while those words don't actually mean anything, I knew what he meant.
It was a natural act for him.
"I didn't come here to run the world record," he said. "I already am the world record holder. I came here to win."
Look, this would seem to be the ultimate physical test. Start as fast as you can, keep your form. Sure, plenty of technical things are involved. But mostly, isn't this about simply running as fast as humanly possible? Flying on your feet?
No. It's more than that.
Everything about this race is so over the top, from the introductions to the post-race celebation. Or in Bolt's case, the mid-race celebration. But it's not some phony Don King-thing. Something about the character of this race demands every last bit of it.
During intros, they announced each runner and showed him up on the giant screens at both ends of the stadium, the Bird's Nest.
Darvis Patton was bobbing his head. Richard Thompson, who would win silver in 9.89, just smiled. American Walter Dix _ the world's-fastest Walter? _ had shades on; he would win bronze. Burns looked angry. Powell's eyes were wide open, nervous.
And Bolt? He posed with his left arm to the sky and right arm back, almost like the Heisman Trophy. What did it mean?
"I was just having fun," he said. "That's me."
Were you doing a little dance, too?
"Not anything particular. I just like dancing."
Who doesn't?
But the thing is, you could tell right then that Powell couldn't keep up. And that was not a physical difference, because Powell, who has run a 9.74, was also capable, physically, of breaking the record.
But Powell never wins big races. It's in his head.
It was in Gay's head, too. He was having doubts about his hamstring, about his fitness. You walk into a race like this with those doubts, and it's over.
His hamstring felt fine. So that's the physical. But the doubts about it killed him.
"I don't really have any excuses," Gay said. "I just didn't make it. . .It was just a back-and-forth battle, reversing the negativity in my mind."
That's not to say that Bolt doesn't have physical skills. He was barely ahead of Thompson at the 50-meter mark, and then. . .
Good-bye.
One runner described Bolt as inhuman, and I guess this is where I should bring up steroids. Is it possible to run this fast, clean? I'm not sure. Everyone else in track seems to be busted.
But that's a buzzkill. This whole night was about a rush.
By the 80-meter mark, Bolt, with the perfect name for a sprinter, was already into full showboat. Past the line, he did another dance, put his arms out like an airplane, danced some more.
Out of context, he comes off as a cocky SOB. You want to shake him and make him realize what he could have done.
"He's having fun, man," said American Darvis Patton, who described himself as having a front-row seat for Bolt. "We're all having fun. Go out there and it's showtime.
"I wish you ran track. It's (the 100) one of the best feelings in the world."
Well, I wouldn't go that far. But it was pretty good, once I could breathe and feel my fingers again.

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[Sir X]

• Tom Fordyce
• 16 Aug 08, 07:17 PM

Beijing
You knew from the moment he stood by his blocks, seconds before the start of the most hyped 100m in history, and posed like a man messing about in a club with his mates.
It's the Olympic final. You're supposed to be shaking inside, aware that you're about to go through the 10 seconds that could define the rest of your life.
There are 90,000 people staring down at you from all sides of the stadium, billions more watching around the world on television.
Usain Bolt's performance on Saturday night was unbelievable, in the most flabbergasted, mouths-agape sense of the word.
These races are won by hundredths of a second, by dips on the line, by the width of a vest. They're not won by chasms.

When Bolt's world record time flashed up on the in-field scoreboard at the Bird's Nest, people actually started laughing.
It was that astonishing, that implausible.
This was only the ninth competitive 100m Bolt has ever run. He wasn't even sure if he'd be running in this race a fortnight ago, and that was when his coach told him that he would.
To explode down the track and run that time, not even trying for the last 15 metres, holding his arms out wide and virtually talking to the crowd, simply defies belief.
But, from the moment he walked out onto the brightly-lit stadium floor, Bolt looked ready to rip up the rule-book.
When pounding, portentous music was played over the PA system as the athletes peeled off their tracksuits pre-race, Bolt started throwing dancehall shapes even as Asafa Powell looked sick with anxiety.
When the starter called the finalists to their blocks and a total hush fell over the rammed-to-the-rafters stadium, the only noise the clattering helicopter overhead, Bolt appeared to be singing to himself.
As he flashed across the line a few seconds later, the fastest human being who's ever lived, he punched his chest, pulled up his bright yellow vest to show off his sprinter's six-pack and roared with delight as the steepling stands roared back at him.
You can try to put this run into context, but there isn't one.

The closest you can get is Michael Johnson's 19.32secs for the 200m in Atlanta 12 years ago, also done in golden spikes. But that was achieved by a man aged 29, at the peak of his powers, after years and years of running the event.
Bolt is 21. It's the first senior 100m final of his life.
The 100m world record isn't generally broken in Olympic finals. Of the last eight records set, only one came at an Olympics - Donovan Bailey's 9.84secs in 1996.
In Beijing, Bolt had a start that was at best average, with six of his opponents reacting quicker to the gun that he did.
There wasn't even a following wind, unlike in May, when he was blown along by a tailwind of +1.7m/s as he ran 9.72secs in New York.
On Saturday night, the Olympic flag hung limply from its pole.
How fast could he have run with a breeze at his back, pushing hard all the way to the line? 9.66? 9.65?
These are numbers that seemed utterly impossible even a few days ago. Now, for Bolt, they're within reach.
Maybe we shouldn't be surprised. Bolt has been a sprinting phenomenon ever since he went through puberty, shot up to 6ft 5in and started running times that created waves far outside his native Jamaica.
As a lanky 15-year-old from Trelawny, he became the youngest ever gold medallist at the World Juniors, storming to the 200m title and repeating the trick a year later.
Injury delayed his progression a little, as did the depth of 200m talent at senior level and the careful nurturing of his coach Glen Mills, but for most judges it was simply matter of when, not if.
For Bolt's two great adversaries ahead of Saturday's showdown, it was a night to throw away and forget about forever.
Powell, for three years the fastest sprinter in the world, the man who's gone under 9.80 seconds more times than anyone else in history, once again failed to deliver in a major championship final.
Even in his worst nightmares he couldn't have imagined running 9.95secs in the Olympic final, not even finishing on the podium.
For Tyson Gay it was even worse. Despite his claims to be back to his best, he failed to even make it through the semis to witness his rival make history first-hand.
Bolt now stands head and shoulders above every other sprinter, both physically and metaphorically.
Like Michael Phelps, he came into these Olympics as a mere sports star but will leave them as a global icon.
And let's not forget - the event he considers to be his best is still to come

[Sir X]

Bolt surges to gold in new record


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Video - Bolt destroyed his rivals in Beijing on Saturday


Jamaican Usain Bolt left his rivals trailing to win gold in the Olympic 100m final with a new world record.
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 of Trinidad and Tobago was second while American Walter Dix came third but they were well adrift.
"My one aim was just to be a champion. That is what I came here to do," said the 21-year-old Bolt.
"I told you I was going to be number one and I did just that. I got a great start. I was getting good starts all the way up to the final. I was getting better and better.
I wasn't bragging... when I thought I had the field covered I was celebrating



Usain Bolt


"It was crazy - phenomenal."
Bolt, who becomes Jamaica's first men's 100m Olympic champion, insisted his decision to celebrate even before crossing the line was not designed to be disrespectful.
"I wasn't bragging," he said. "When I thought I had the field covered I was celebrating. I was happy."
As for setting a new world record, he added: "I didn't know I'd broken it until my victory lap.
"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 am just happy I did the country proud. I am Jamaica's first gold medallist, and I know the whole of Jamaica is going crazy." BBC OLYMPICS BLOG

Usain Bolt's performance on Saturday night was unbelievable, in the most flabbergasted, mouths-agape sense of the word



BBC Sport's Tom Fordyce


Bolt, who was in two minds about running the 100m until just a few weeks ago, took a call from Jamaica's prime minister Bruce Golding following his race.
"He said 'Congratulations' (and that) I had made the country proud and they are looking forward to me going home.
"I am looking forward to going home also. I did the country proud and that was the aim for me."
Bolt's Jamaican team-mate Asafa Powell had been tipped as a possible rival but finished in fifth place.
Powell told BBC Sport: "I messed up big time, my legs died on me. Usain ran an awesome race, I'm very happy for him.
100m RECORD EVOLUTION

9.69 U Bolt, Beijing 2008
9.72 U Bolt, New York 2008
9.74 A Powell, Rieti 2007
9.77 A Powell, Athens 2005
9.79 M Greene, Athens 1999
9.84 D Bailey, Atlanta 1996
9.85 L Burrell, Lausanne 1994
9.86 C Lewis, Tokyo 1991
9.90 L Burrell, New York 1991
9.92 C Lewis, Seoul 1988
9.93 C Smith, Colorado 1983
9.95 J Hines, Mexico 1968

"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 told BBC Sport.
"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 only question was just how fast a time Bolt was going to set.
"I never knew I was going to run so fast," said the 6ft 5in star. "I didn't come here to break the world record - because I am the world-record holder." Bolt believes he can go even faster, saying: "Anything is possible. The human body is changing so you never know."
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Video - Johnson stunned by Bolt run


Despite easing down well short of the line, Bolt 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, told BBC Sport: "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."
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. He will also target gold in the 4x100m relay. "I have one aim now and that is to be a triple gold medallist," said Bolt, who will be back in action on Monday for the 200m heats.

[Sir X]

Well I am done my work is done , glad to see it in my life time , just looking at Boys &Girls Champs next year and Penn relays ....WOW nuff leff fe come

[Mosiah]

and there's whispering that Jamaica may even put Bolt on the 4x400 relay, even though he has no real experience at that distance. But when you're hot, you're really hot.
If Bolt does race in the 4x400 -- and it's all speculation now -- he could be looking at four golds and immortality that only Jesse Owens and Carl Lewis share.

Hasn't he run 4x400s all the while?

I think he should go for 4 golds. The problem is our other 400m runners are so woeful.

[Exile]

Well said Willi. I really can't be bothered with many of the other sports..not to mention the likes of the Williams' sisters, Ronaldinho, Messi et al. all trying to medal.

[Exile]

I saw the first time he ran at Champs then went on to get the Carifta time....
But NEVER let us forget Bert Cameron's run in the Olympic Semis to claim a place in the final after pulling a hamstring...T&F Mag had that as one of the fastest run of all time. Remember Willi?

[Gamma]

yes i remember that as proof of the force of the WILL....cameron was unable to run in the finals.

[Islandman]

That was special.

That is not supposed to be possible at the World Level. The man basically stopped and then started running again!

[Sir X]

Jamaicans hail sprint king Bolt


By Claire Stocks
BBC Sport in Beijing



Bolt's run has made him one of the hottest properties in world sport



Jamaica has been celebrating its first Olympic 100m gold after Usain Bolt's record-breaking victory in Beijing.
Bolt cruised over the line in the Bird's Nest stadium in 9.69 secs, one of the biggest winning margins ever.
Jamaicans had gathered at big screens throughout the island to watch, and his victory sparked wild celebrations.
"It's a wonderful day for Jamaica. It was a stunning performance and we're so proud of you," Jamaica's prime minister Bruce Golding told Bolt by telephone.
The last Jamaican man to win a sprint medal was Donald Quarrie in the 200m at the Montreal Olympics in 1976.
Bolt, 21, was the toast of his sleepy home village of Sherwood Content, where his father Wellesley was watching.
"Once he got going I know they were not gonna catch him. He is such a strong young man. I know he will take more gold," he said.
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Golding said he is planning a massive welcome home ceremony for Bolt and members of the Jamaican contingent - and there is a talk of a day's national holiday if the Jamaican team's medal rush continues.
"The Games are not yet over and we expect a lot more from the team in the days ahead, but I can assure you that we are planning a massive welcome home party for all of you," he said.
Bolt is in action again on Monday, running in the heats of his specialist event, the 200m.
Mike Fennell, head of Jamaica's National Olympic Committee, who was in the stadium in Beijing to watch the race, said: "We have chances in the men's 200m, women's 200m, the women's 100m hurdles, the men's 400m hurdles, the women's 400m, and all four relays.
"So we have a lot of expectations that there are more medals to be won."
Olympian Pablo McNeil, who guided Bolt though his high school career, was ecstatic at his protege's performance.

He's a young athlete, he's having a great time and this sport of all sports needs that - he's carefree, he's got the talent


200m world-record holder Michael Johnson


"I knew he had it in him. I can't wait for him to break the 200m record and then run 42 seconds in the 400m," McNeil said.
"He has taken Jamaica on his back, and demolished the whole world. That is the respect to be given to the greatest sprinter of all time."
Edmund Bartlett, tourism minister for Jamaica, who was also in the Bird's Nest, said: "It was euphoria, it was the greatest feeling I've had in all my life. because Jamaica has never had the joy and glory of a gold medal in the 100m sprint in my 60 years.
"And in addition to getting our first gold, he broke the world record. It is an experience that is almost unspeakable. It brought me out in goose bumps.
"That wasn't just my feeling, but the whole of Jamaica. I got reports from the districts and cities back home, where people were out on the streets hailing the victory."
After Bolt crossed the line in his sensational world-record time, turning to the crowd for affirmation of his margin of victory, he jogged round the track to the Jamaican contingent on the far side of the stadium.
Bolt is now the centre of intense media interest


As he hugged fans and friends, the Bird's Nest organisers chose the moment to pipe some reggae music around the public address system.
"It was good old vintage reggae, it was tremendous of the organisers they were able to find a piece of music that helped us celebrate," said Bartlett.
"We are expecting at least another five medals from the track and we feel very confident. If we do that then I would not be surprised if we declared a national holiday."
Some people have criticised Bolt for showboating over the line with his arms spread wide, but BBC pundit and 200m world record-holder Michael Johnson, said: "It's ridiculous to say he was disrespectful in the way he finished.
"He's a young athlete, he's having a great time and this sport of all sports needs that - he's carefree, he's got the talent. He did not do it in a disrespectful way he is just excited about his sport."
The Jamaican camp had been unhappy at the level of scrutiny the drug testers have put on their athletes since arriving in Beijing, with 32 tests carried outon the squad according to the team's chef de mission Don Anderson.
And Fenner denied the margin of victory raised questions about the race.
"Our athletes have been tested constantly. "When Bolt broke the world record at the National Championships, and at all the championships in which he has participated in between; he and the other Jamaican sprinters (have been tested). "They have been tested more times than any other athletes around - what more can you ask? It is just that Usain is an outstanding natural athlete."