World Athletics Championships: Usain Bolt lays London doubts to rest and insists farewell will be special
THE world athletics championships are supposed to be a celebration of the greatest athlete the world has seen. And Usain Bolt doesn’t want to let anyone down.
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IT wasn’t quite the elephant in the room but it’s what everyone has been thinking leading up to Usain Bolt’s farewell.
These world championships were supposed to be a celebration of the greatest athlete the world has seen.
And generally with celebrations, they have a happy ending.
That’s why the thought of Bolt losing in his final 100m race is almost too painful to bring up despite the evidence suggesting it’s a real possibility.
The facts are Bolt has struggled this season running just three 100m races with his only sub-10 second time a workmanlike 9.95sec in Monaco two weeks ago.
Six men have run legally faster this year and that doesn’t include Andre De Grasse, the Canadian many believe is the heir to Bolt’s throne, who has the quickest wind-assisted time for 2017.
It’s a set of facts which is seemingly making everyone nervous apart from the man himself.
“Come on,” Bolt said as he addressed a packed news conference ahead of the championships which start on Friday (EST).
“You guys know if I show up at a championships I’m fully confident.
“My coach is confident and I’m ready to go. I’m fully confident, 100 per cent.”
This is where it’s hard to argue with the Jamaican given his winning run at major championships which started at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
A false-start and disqualification in the 2011 world championships 100m final in Daegu is the only blimp on a CV that will never be matched again.
Usain Bolt - Tale of the Tape
- Born:
- Trelawny, Jamaica
- Age:
- 30
- Height:
- 195cm
- Weight:
- 94kg
- World Records:
- 100m - 9.58sec (Berlin, 2009), 200m - 19.19sec (Berlin, 2009)
- Olympic Games:
- 8 Gold Medals
- 2008 Beijing:
- 100m, 200m (Later lost 4x100m gold after teammate's positive drugs test)
- 2012 London:
- 100m, 200m, 4x100m relay
- 2016 Rio:
- 100m, 200m, 4x100m relay
- World Championships:
- 11 Gold Medals, 2 Silver
- Gold:
- 2009 Berlin: 100m, 200m, 4x100m relay; 2011 Daegu: 200m, 4x100m relay; 2013 Moscow: 100m, 200m, 4x100m relay; 2015 Beijing: 100m, 200m, 4x100m relay
Bolt comes to his farewell the owner of 11 world championships gold medals and eight Olympic gold medals.
A couple of times he has looked in trouble yet prevailed.
In 2015 at the Beijing world titles, Bolt was struggling with injury while American Justin Gatlin was dominating the season, but when it came to the only race that mattered the champion lifted.
Last year at the Rio Olympics, there were similar doubts coming in but it’s almost like a switch is flicked when the big stage beckons and Bolt left Brazil with a clean sweep of gold in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay.
He isn’t running the 200m in London and bristled when asked if he might change his mind if he happened to lose the 100m.
“No,” he said.
“It’s not going to happen, so we won’t have that problem. It’s not going to happen.”
Asked if he still believes he is the fastest in the world, Bolt replied: “Yeah, without a doubt.”
“The last race I ran was a 9.95, so that shows I am going in the right direction. After the two rounds leading up to the 100m final, which always help me, it’s all about who keeps their nerve.
“I have been here many times. I know I am ready.”
Bolt is confident his world records - 9.58sec and 19.19sec which were both set at the 2009 Berlin world championships - won’t be broken in the foreseeable future.
“I hope they’re not. No athlete would ever wish for that - I want to brag to my kids when they’re in their 20s: ‘See, I’m still the best!,” he said.
“There is no-one around now, in this era, who can do it. No. Maybe in a couple of years, 10 years, but my records are safe for now.”
Bolt, who turns 31 a week after the championships, admitted it was his body, not his mind, that had told him to retire.
“It’s the body, definitely,” he said.
“Over the years, I’ve got more niggling injuries than anything else, simple little things, but it’s just because I’m getting older.
“The pounding means my body’s just deteriorating now, so for me it’s just time to go.”
In many ways he has been track and field’s saviour given the sport has been shrouded in drugs controversies of recent times including Russia’s removal from the Rio Olympics.
“Hopefully athletes will see what’s going on and what they need to do to help the sport move forward,” Bolt said.
“Personally I think we were at rock bottom. After the scandal on Russia I don’t think it gets any worse than that.
“Over the years we’re doing a better job, it’s getting clean and we’re catching up to a lot of athletes. There’s an understanding that if you cheat you will get caught. Over time the sport will get better.”
How Bolt will be remembered has been one of his biggest driving forces in the twilight of his career and he offered the assembled journalists a headline he wants to see next week.
“Unbeatable. For me, that would be the biggest headline. Unbeatable. Unstoppable. Hear that guys? Jot it down.”
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