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Dean Macey, The Guardian
July 11, 2012
First Published: 00:27 IST(11/7/2012)
Last Updated: 07:47 IST(11/7/2012)
So, Usain Bolt pulled out of the Diamond League meeting in Monaco recently because, his coach said, he has a “slight problem”.
Too right he does — it is 5ft 11in tall, runs the 100m in 9.75sec, and is called Yohan Blake. Never mind “slight”; after Blake beat him in the 100m and the 200m at
the Jamaican trials one would say that right now Bolt has a pretty serious problem.
This is not the first time we have wondered whether Bolt can be beaten. Remember that, last year, he was not in great shape leading up to the World championships, and he went away, did some training, came out in South Korea and found three-tenths of a second. He could do that again.
But the difference is that this time he needs to. He knows fully well that if he does not get it right, Blake is going to shoot him down. That is a very different kind of pressure to knowing that a mistake is only going to be the difference between winning by five metres rather than eight.
Bolt loves to give off an air of a man who doesn't care. He has his shtick, and he sticks to it. But I don't quite believe he is as carefree as all that.
There is one image of him I have etched in my mind that told me all I needed to know about how he really feels about Blake. It was at the Diamond League meeting in Brussels last September.
That night, Bolt won the 100m in 9.76, and he was feeling pretty pleased with himself. Later in the evening, Blake won the 200m in 19.26, the second-fastest time in history.
The camera caught Bolt as Blake crossed the line, and he looked as though he had just been whacked across the chops with a wet fish.
That hurt Bolt, though he tried to hide it when he was doing his TV interviews that night.
Blake's reaction time in that 200m was 0.269, which was the slowest in the field by a long way. That means that from the moment the first foot went down towards the finish line Blake's run was probably the fastest 200m in history, faster even than Bolt's world record of 19.19.
I think, Bolt already knew how good Blake was. In fact, I believe it was one of the reasons he false-started in the 100m final at the World championships in Daegu. The two of them do not actually train together, but they share the same club in Kingston.
That means that there's no getting away from each other. Blake is called the Beast because he trains so hard. Bolt will be reminded of that each and every day he is at the club. It could be eating away at him.
His performances at the trials were none too shabby --- he clocked 9.86 in the 100m, and 19.83 in the 200m. But the truth is that he got beaten by a better athlete on the day. Right now, Bolt is not even the quickest man at his own club. Who knows what that's doing to his head? He seemed to be feeling the pressure at the Jamaican trials. He got off to a terrible start in the 100m, which is still the weakest part of his race.
Matter of split seconds
Over 200m, unless Blake is really flying, I think Bolt will be able to run him down. But in the 100m, where the dividing line between success and failure is so fine, one bad stride in the first 10m could cost him the gold medal. In fact, if he starts like that again in the final in London, he may not win a medal at all. That sounds like an exaggeration, but it's not.
Justin Gatlin has run 9.80 this season. Asafa Powell has done 9.85, Tyson Gay 9.86. I expect all eight finalists in the Olympics to break 10 seconds, and we could easily see three or four of them run under 9.80. And everyone is gunning for Bolt. It is going to be one hell of a humdinger. How it evolved
So that's what Bolt will be trying to fix now — his start. Because if he goes behind in the first 20m in London, he's going to come under more psychological pressure than he has ever known before. Bolt always said that he wanted to make himself a legend at these Olympics. We all wondered what could he possibly do to improve on what he has already done?
Well, now we know. This time, he has the one thing that every great athlete needs — a great rival. Think of Seb Coe and Steve Ovett, or Carl Lewis and Mike Powell. All the legends of athletics had their demons, competitors who were their equal. Their contests came down to who had the psychological edge on the day, who was tough enough to nick it on the line. Bolt has never had that before. He has always been alone at the head of the field, racing himself and the clock. Well, that's not a competition, it's a time trial. Don't get me wrong; what he did took the world's breath away. He broke barriers that no one believed could be broken. But I want to see him have to dip for that line this summer, not coast through it with his arms in the air.
July 11, 2012
First Published: 00:27 IST(11/7/2012)
Last Updated: 07:47 IST(11/7/2012)
So, Usain Bolt pulled out of the Diamond League meeting in Monaco recently because, his coach said, he has a “slight problem”.
Too right he does — it is 5ft 11in tall, runs the 100m in 9.75sec, and is called Yohan Blake. Never mind “slight”; after Blake beat him in the 100m and the 200m at
the Jamaican trials one would say that right now Bolt has a pretty serious problem.
This is not the first time we have wondered whether Bolt can be beaten. Remember that, last year, he was not in great shape leading up to the World championships, and he went away, did some training, came out in South Korea and found three-tenths of a second. He could do that again.
But the difference is that this time he needs to. He knows fully well that if he does not get it right, Blake is going to shoot him down. That is a very different kind of pressure to knowing that a mistake is only going to be the difference between winning by five metres rather than eight.
Bolt loves to give off an air of a man who doesn't care. He has his shtick, and he sticks to it. But I don't quite believe he is as carefree as all that.
There is one image of him I have etched in my mind that told me all I needed to know about how he really feels about Blake. It was at the Diamond League meeting in Brussels last September.
That night, Bolt won the 100m in 9.76, and he was feeling pretty pleased with himself. Later in the evening, Blake won the 200m in 19.26, the second-fastest time in history.
The camera caught Bolt as Blake crossed the line, and he looked as though he had just been whacked across the chops with a wet fish.
That hurt Bolt, though he tried to hide it when he was doing his TV interviews that night.
Blake's reaction time in that 200m was 0.269, which was the slowest in the field by a long way. That means that from the moment the first foot went down towards the finish line Blake's run was probably the fastest 200m in history, faster even than Bolt's world record of 19.19.
I think, Bolt already knew how good Blake was. In fact, I believe it was one of the reasons he false-started in the 100m final at the World championships in Daegu. The two of them do not actually train together, but they share the same club in Kingston.
That means that there's no getting away from each other. Blake is called the Beast because he trains so hard. Bolt will be reminded of that each and every day he is at the club. It could be eating away at him.
His performances at the trials were none too shabby --- he clocked 9.86 in the 100m, and 19.83 in the 200m. But the truth is that he got beaten by a better athlete on the day. Right now, Bolt is not even the quickest man at his own club. Who knows what that's doing to his head? He seemed to be feeling the pressure at the Jamaican trials. He got off to a terrible start in the 100m, which is still the weakest part of his race.
Matter of split seconds
Over 200m, unless Blake is really flying, I think Bolt will be able to run him down. But in the 100m, where the dividing line between success and failure is so fine, one bad stride in the first 10m could cost him the gold medal. In fact, if he starts like that again in the final in London, he may not win a medal at all. That sounds like an exaggeration, but it's not.
Justin Gatlin has run 9.80 this season. Asafa Powell has done 9.85, Tyson Gay 9.86. I expect all eight finalists in the Olympics to break 10 seconds, and we could easily see three or four of them run under 9.80. And everyone is gunning for Bolt. It is going to be one hell of a humdinger. How it evolved
So that's what Bolt will be trying to fix now — his start. Because if he goes behind in the first 20m in London, he's going to come under more psychological pressure than he has ever known before. Bolt always said that he wanted to make himself a legend at these Olympics. We all wondered what could he possibly do to improve on what he has already done?
Well, now we know. This time, he has the one thing that every great athlete needs — a great rival. Think of Seb Coe and Steve Ovett, or Carl Lewis and Mike Powell. All the legends of athletics had their demons, competitors who were their equal. Their contests came down to who had the psychological edge on the day, who was tough enough to nick it on the line. Bolt has never had that before. He has always been alone at the head of the field, racing himself and the clock. Well, that's not a competition, it's a time trial. Don't get me wrong; what he did took the world's breath away. He broke barriers that no one believed could be broken. But I want to see him have to dip for that line this summer, not coast through it with his arms in the air.