TESSANNE Chin admits she was shocked when she saw sprint king Usain Bolt sitting in the audience during the live show of The Voice on Monday, November 18.

But she regards the surprise attendance of the Jamaican 100m and 200m world and Olympic record holder as a great honour.

The eventual winner of the NBC talent contest told reporters and editors at yesterday’s Jamaica Observer Monday Exchange that she had no clue that Bolt was in the audience until she saw him while making her way to the stage to perform in a group song.

“Ah nearly lost it,” she said. “I was like, what is he doing here?”

“It was just such a huge honour, because I know he’s a busy guy; I know his time is precious, so when I saw him there that just moved me so much,” Chin added.

She said that after the show — on which she again wowed the celebrity coaches with her rendition of Gladys Knight’s If I Were Your Woman — the track superstar went backstage and took pictures with everybody and passed on words of encouragement to her.

“He was like, yuh going on good, man, keep it up,” she said, adding that before she went to the show’s blind audition on September 24, she had told Bolt that she was nervous and didn’t want to let anyone down.

But Bolt, she said, told her: “Listen, you can only go out there and do your best, and while you’re out there be confident and have fun.”

— Vernon Davidson