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lets hope it doesnt rain eh!

The greatest athlete of all time.

Its a privilege watching this guy race, long may it continue.

Congratulations to Usain Bolt.

Enjoyed the race and well done to Bolt as he dragged Walter Dix and Lemaitre through in times well below the 20 second barrier!!

Also congratulations to Sally Pearson who was absolutley peerless in the 110m recording a sub 12.30 time. Hopefully she can get close to 12.20 in the future.

The greatest athlete of all time.

Its a privilege watching this guy race, long may it continue.

I think it is a privilege watching all the top athletes!!

While I accept that Usain is the number one draw in Athletics and will be the number one draw in any Olympic sport he was slightly overshadowed I thought by Sally Pearson in the hurdles. Amazing performance and time 4th best of all time and silver and bronze got PB's as well. Today made up for for some not so good races early in the week like the mens 100m and 110m hurdles. Hopefully GB can get the couple of medals to get past their target Farah in 5k and Idowu in triple jump hopefully should both get medals.

Its athletics, one of the most cheat-filled sports there is. And its a fairly skill-free and dull sport at that - running in a straight line or round a bend, quickly or a bit slower, depending on how far one has to run. It must rank with formula 1 as the most boring sport out there. At least with F1 you can appreciate the skill involved. Is there any skill in running?
Don't get me wrong, Usain Bolt is a great personlity and a great athlete, but in a completely tainted and yawn-inducing sport.
The Olympic Games is a truely phenomenal sporting occasion - until the athletics starts.

Do people honestly believe it is legal the times he is tunning???

This was great to see. It is very rare to see someone dominate the blue ribbon events like Bolt does.

He is probably the biggest superstar on the planet right now, with Lionel Messi.

The times by Dix and LeMaitre prove that if someone runs amazingly well, the rest will follow. This has been proven throughout track history.

There is no way LeMaitre would run that fast if he was not chasing superstar Bolt running 19.40.

Overall, its just great for athletics all round.

i'm just saying, but it's definitely going to rain in London

meredith_hunter - how can watching athletes like usain bolt, pearson (no skill in hurdling?) or ennis (no skill in competing in 8 different disciplines?) or johnson back in the 90s be boring, even in the longer events the finish to the mens 10000 was exciting. Aswel as the womens javelin. How can you be so ignorant towards some of the most awe inducing athletes in the world?

when are the women's records going to be scrapped? They are almost all ridiculously fraudulent.

@#7, Judging by the huge numbers of people who tune in to watch Athletics and F1, the sports are clearly not as "boring" for everyone. Why you are on an athletics blog in the first place is beyond me, but if you hold such views, you shouldn't state them as facts, as the viewing figures and enthusiasm worldwide for the sports completely contradict the point you make. Maybe next time you should punctuate your reply with "in my opinion", instead of pretending that your opinion has any relevance on a large scale...

Whatever he says about the false start, he must have been under pressure. That is why he chose to even concede an advantage in reaction time. His exertion level as judged from his grimacing looked to be near his top. But he is a great competitor and his adversaries may be premature in thinking they are catching up.

@#7, Cabluigi (#13) wrote exactly what I wanted to say. Please don't be so ignorant on a ´óÏó´«Ã½ forum, this is not Youtube.

@#8, Usain Bolt must be the most tested track & field athlete in the world. He was breaking almost all the junior records when he was younger, anyone who follows athletics will have heard about Usain and the times he was producing long before Beijing. If Bolt is found to have been using performance enhancing drugs, I will eat my dog. Alive.

Back to the blog, I was astounded that Bolt ran 19.4 from lane 3. Dix did well to stay within 0.3, and Lemaitre was fantastic! If he works on his technique on the bend - which he desperately needs to - he can be a threat to Dix, Edward, and possibly Gay.

As for the 'rain in London 2012' comments - I hope not!!!

For me the mens 100m is just like boxing, the ultimate purest sporting event.

One proves who the fastest man is on the earth, the other proves who the hardest man is on the earth.

One encapsualtes speed the other power.

As a man, the mens 100m is the most stimulating sporting event along with the boxing heavyweight championship.

In sporting terms, they are the purest events, no balls, rackets etc.

Only true sporting fans will know where I am coming from, and these events will be around for a long time to come.

I agree, Paul. Whilst I love many of the technical and more skill-based sports, even their greatest moments can't compete with Bolt's four utterly mind-blowing finals in Beijing and Berlin. I think it's partly to do with the fact that no-one on the planet is faster, or ever has been; it's about doing the impossible. Whereas if you gave me a 2-iron and about 20 golf balls, I could probably repeat Faldo's shot into the 13th. If I played a set against Nadal, I might just win a point or two on merit. Pump a few balls into the box for me and I might just repeat Rooney's overhead. But Bolt...the rest of the world just isn't even close to being able to match him (let alone me, haha).

Skill-based sports are a lesson in doing difficult things consistently well. Bolt is a lesson in doing the impossible.


As a further question - will he beat his times? I'm not sure if he will beat the 100m time, but for 200m...we might even see under 20s...!

Jay James, careful ehat you wish for, I would hate to have to see you eat your dog.

The fact that any man is capable of running under 10 seconds legally are dubious, how many of the runners from the great Seoul 100m who went under the 10 second barrier were later caught cheating?

The 'most tested' athelte on the planet argument is false, Jamaica does not have a rigorous testing programme so he is only really tested during international competiton. If you firmly believe that a small carribbean island is able to dominate short distance track events without ringing any alarm bells then you are niave.

How many tests did Marion Jones pass, she did not fail 1 single test. I am a huge follower of cycling & know that these athletes are tested to death but are so far ahead of the testers it means little anyway.

Good luck to Usain & I for one would hope he is clean but if a man can 'jog' his way to 9.55 seconds against the best athletes in the world and no one raise an eyebrow then the guy simply isnt human.

AT TOM - I believe if tyson ran vs bolt in 200m, he would not win, but would push bolt to something under 19 seconds and himsself to michael johnsons US Record.

Also dix seems to be overshadowed by lemetrre for some reason. His 19.7 is only behined franke fredricks 19.68, for the best time for a silver medal.

hope dix and gay can push bolt next year in 200

sirhellsbells, cynicism is also a trait of mine, and do not find much in sport that returns me to my awe-filled childhood, but I was returned there by Bolt's achievements (and the apparent fun he had) in Beijing and he continues to have me believing it isn't illegally drugs-assisted in view of his ability to combine his enormous stride length with fast leg speed. For someone who grew up when sub 10 second 100m and sub 20 second 200m was very rare Bolt to me is something of a human freak, and I'm old enough to know we me not see the same again in the next 40 years so I'm savouring every run.
Just to show my cynical side is still alive and well however I'm chuckling at Darren Campbell's suggestion that the London crowd will be full of Jamaicans, conjuring up images in my mind of the Oval 1976 when the West Indies cricket team were in full effect - hopefully there are plenty of Jamaicans working in prominent positions for the sponsors, the ´óÏó´«Ã½, or live in the prosporous home counties - I fear the likes of Hackney, Tottenham, Handsworth and Moss Side will not be well represented.

Bolt is clearly the best around at the moment, but the greatest of all time? Much too early to say. Athletes throughout the last century lowered world records. The best track and field athlete of my lifetime (born in 1961) was Carl Lewis...

Let's face it, Bolt's achievements are remarkable even if they are chemically-enhanced, let alone if they aren't - and there aren't the tell-tale signs of steroid abuse in Bolt as there were with Johnson, Montgomery, et multiple cetera.

Heck, those two on drugs were two-tenths slower than Bolt.

19.40, in an unfavourable lane, with a bad start, is just astonishing. Bring on London?

Correction. The 19.19 record was breaking his own record of 19.30 which he had set the previous year.

I think seeing Bolt run is the most exciting sporting spectacle around. I always seem to miss his runs but having just watched the Jamaican 100m relay,I was absolutly buzzing. Nothing gives me that same adrenaline rush as a sprinter or sprinters breaking world records.
I did manage to see bolt smash the 200m world record in Beijing whilst on my break at work. i remember beforehand johnson saying his record will not be broken. Well,it well and truly was.
If it was found out that Bolt was a drugs cheat, i would be devastated and lose all faith in short distance sprinting. Im one who believes people can be born special,with special genetics. Bolt is one of the top sports stars out there and i agree with the person who compares him to Messi. You cannot train what these guys have. They are born special

i wonder if usain bolt was british if we would have the negative comments the man is a great athlete and only god can judge not man he has put the word sport back in the limelight so all who have nothing possitive to say stay away

Sevenseaman (@11) - stay away from this blog then. Ignorance at it's best. Bolt is tested extensively. What next now?

Not sure why there's an issue that a "small carribbean island is able to dominate short distance". So what? Short distances (i.e., upto the quarter mile) have been the thing in JA going back from Wint, Laing, McKenley (whose monument is in the national stadium), Rhoden, Miller, Quarrie, Ray Stewart, etc.
Short distance running could be considered the national pastime.

In cricket, someone has to catch the eye of the WICBC with the "federal" politics that goes on there plus Twenty20 carries more swing / monies anyhow as Chris Gayle would probably attest. Not a lot of retired WI cricketers gonna have a career on Sky TV so make hay while the sun shines. Football - not big enough or enough of a talent pool to get very far.
So individual sport is the thing - what else is there?


If you put effort into one thing that you really enjoy and that you're really good at, and that can get you out of your environment, it shouldn't be a surprise. It's not so unusual really.

Going through school, someone with potential can be spotted pretty quickly. By high school and going from Class IV through to Class I at Champs, it hones the athlete for the big time. The Greater Kingston "corporate area" (city) versus "country" / "rural area" schools that are powerhouses of track athletics produce lots of talented sprinters.

I think the world junior record is still held by Bolt.

The Kenyans dominate at long distances.
The Brits at rowing.
Not unusual at all in that.
The swedes at one time crystallized tennis success around Borg, Willander, Järryd, Edberg (Edberg being the exception as more of a serve and volley type player). It was their time.

Nickel Ashmeade has made the transition to the seniors. In a few years, Jazeel Murphy and Odane Skeen could be part of the new wave of sprinters on the circuit.
Short distance running will always be the thing in JA.

Possibly because of Don Quarrie (whose statue is in national stadium) and the way he took the bend, there's an affinity with the 200m (Bolt's favourite event). There's also a yearning for good quarter-milers (as in the days of those greats like Wint and McKinley and so on down to Bert Cameron). This is another reason people would like to see Bolt try the 400m - though he's reluctant, understandably, to go there.
McKinley is probably the only one to have done the three sprint events at one Olympics; doubt Bolt would try that.

Things just don't happen overnight and with a little look people would see why certain nations go for certain events.

Kenia Sinclair (800m though 1500m may be on the cards too) and a few field eventers may show that it's more than just sprints there, but the emphasis is still sprints, from primary through high school.

Bolt is a fantastic peoples champion known and admired world wide! A great role model to all, certainly destined to be if not already an all time sporting great!

Unfortunately a lot of the top performing athletes will be scrutanised and accussed of taking P.E.D's and in athletics even more so beacause of the great athletic prowess these athletes have! (e.g you dont hear people of accussing Rooney of cheating throught the use of P.E.D's, as its his ability through skills as well as physical ability)

IMO, we should respect and admire their greatness, untill proven otherwise by WADA, as speculation is not conclusive and why should innocent peoples hard work and achievements be tarnished by this!

Good article, much better that the one's on the football so far this season.

Even in the midst of the world championships, there's just something about athletics that fails to capture the imagination, especially with so much else going on atm...

To all the cynics above, Bolt has not only been smashing world records since Beijing. All through the junior ranks he stood out as a class apart, and the world junior record still belongs to him. Do these people seriously believe that Bolt has been consistently taking performance enhancing drugs for the best part of a decade, without being caught?

Kolo toure is just coming back from a drugs ban, when all he did was take vitamin supplements belonging to his wife. That's how tough these tests are. Admittedly, this is a different sport, with a different drugs testing body, but the list of banned ped is the same, so it stands to reason that the tests would be similar.

Yet this is the attitude we have at the moment, we wait and wait for these superstars, but when they finally come along we drag them down with accusations of cheating. Another example is the 800m runner Semenya. She burst onto the scene in Berlin, eclipsing the field with a terrific run. So, of course, she must be a man, no woman could do that!! This attitude is disgraceful and insulting to all athletes involved, and has no place in sport.

Rant over now :-), but I thought that needed to be said.

I honestly believe that Usain Bolt is now the all-time greatest ever sprinter having taken over that mantle from Bob Hayes.

We have in our midst a living legend - soak him up while he is still around.

I can understand people asking questions because the sport has had a history of cheating in all countries. What I would say is that I think the sport is cleaner then it ever was and that the IAAF will do all they can to catch the cheats. Sadly some people make the choice to cheat and if caught they have to take the consequences. A ban which I think should be four years and to miss the next Olympics is a harsh but fair punishment.

Good to see Dexter Lee, world junior champion, in the semis of the sprint relay, on the anchor leg - the leg eventually done by Bolt in the finals.

Also, good that other new sprinters are coming through:
"Grace Jackson, the former sprinter who is now team leader for Jamaica, could think of only one possible contender. Not Tyson Gay. Not Asafa Powell. But a new recruit to Bolt's Racers Track Club back in Kingston. "He's the one who Usain's coach, Glen Mills, says will beat him," says Jackson. "He's a young kid. Just coming out of high school." In that case, the world will be waiting a while yet."

I am so grateful for being able to see Usain Bolt achieve such great heights. I would love to see Bolt vs Johnson both in their prime over 200m. I bet the record would be somewhere in the late-18s. Mo Greene, Leroy Burrell, Carl Lewis & Donovan Bailey's 100m records have been surpassed by many athletes now, yet Johnson's 200m record has only been surpassed by Bolt, just goes to show how phenomenal he was.

to meredith hunter (comment no 7)
Sport is not all about skill though is it? you could be the most skillful football ever but if you have the speed of an Eric Pickles or strength of a 10 year old girl, it is not going to get you very far.
The olympics motto is 'Faster, Higher, Stronger' and that is what I regard as exciting. Just having pure skill is not 'all that' and rather tedious to watch if not allied with some kind of athletic ability, i.e. Golf and all forms of motor racing.

I pray that Tyson is fit for London 2012 so we can finally get a true head to head in the 200m. He is the only man that could scare Bolt over the distance, as 19.4 is definitely not out of Tysons reach.