Daegu saw Bolt from two critical angles: Take your pick
DAEGU, South Korea (AFP) — Jamaica’s Usain Bolt showed two sides of his character at the Daegu world championships — one that will give his rivals hope and another that will strike fear into their hearts.
A shock disqualification from the 100m was not the way most people would have predicted for Bolt’s global domination to come to an end but it comes in a season when Bolt has been short of his awesome best.
It’s only a minor chink in his armour but it is a chink nonetheless. The sprint king has shown he is human after all.
An anguished Bolt vowed to hit back hard in the 200m and stayed true to his word, destroying the field as he ran 19.40 econds, the fourth fastest time in history, teeth clenched and desire etched onto his face.
Only Bolt, twice, and American track legend Michael Johnson have run faster.
And on the last night of action on Sunday Bolt powered his team to a new world record of 37.04 seconds to break the Jamaicans’ own world record set at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
“We ended the championships on a good note,” said the 25-year-old.
“We reminded ourselves about the Olympics. We focused on getting the baton all around. When I saw the first two legs, I thought anything is possible and I ran my best.
“I ended the championships very well. I started on a bad note but I ended on a good note.”
It is the desperate will to win that Bolt showed in the 200m and relay — so often masked by his showboating and tomfoolery — that will give his rivals sleepless nights in the run-up to next year’s Olympics in London.
“I wasn’t angry. I was running hard just to say to fans ‘sorry about the 100m’,” Bolt said after the 200m. “I came out here to do my best and prove to them. At the start I did not panic.”
After storming to the 100m and 200m sprint double in then-world record times at the 2008 Olympics, Bolt matched his feat the following year at the Berlin worlds, setting new marks of 9.58 and 19.19sec.
But this year he admitted he was not in the form to threaten those marks, saying after his 200m victory: “I’m not in the best shape but it is all about fun and enjoyment.”
He has made clear this season that his major focus is next year’s Olympics.
“Next season I should be ready and it should not be a problem. The Olympics are going to be a big thing for me. I’m going to be really serious.”
There was a sense coming into the world championships in South Korea that Bolt, the globe’s most marketable sportsman, was vulnerable.
By his own standards he has had a quiet season, lagging behind a group of rivals on the list of the season’s best 100m times including American Tyson Gay and compatriots Asafa Powell and Steve Mullings.
But Gay was injured and Mullings missed the worlds after failing a drugs test and when Powell, the fastest man this season (9.78 seconds), also withdrew injured, the path looked clear for Bolt until his fatal error.
Jamaican team-mate Yohan Blake won the gold in the absence of Bolt.
The 200m looked more certain with Bolt having run three Diamond League races for three victories this year, his narrowest winning margin a comfortable 0.18 seconds.
He had also run the fastest time of the year (19.86 seconds) coming into the Daegu worlds.
Slow starts aside, once he got away in the final, there was never any likelihood that his rivals would catch him and he finished 0.3sec ahead of America’s Walter Dix.
The silver medallist said: “I feel like am getting closer and closer to Bolt.” But it maybe the closest he ever gets.
Bolt remains the man that sets pulses racing. He is pure theatre. He is still the man to beat.