Usain Bolt made history last night by becoming the first athlete in history to win three Olympic gold medals in the men’s 100m final in Rio.
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The sprinter-turned-showman’s swan song in the Olympic 100 meters Sunday night was a no-doubter – a pedestrian-by-his-standards 9.81-second sprint down the straightaway, but not so slow that he couldn’t take time to point at his own chest with his thumb a step before he crossed the finish line.
“I was actually exhausted in the final”, said Gatlin, who also hailed Bolt. Was it gymnast Matt Whitlock winning two gold medals or maybe it was Usain Bolt’s incredible win?
“When I got going, when I go to 50 meters I could tell I was going to catch him”, Bolt said.
“Nobody else has done it or even attempted it”.
“I expected to go faster, but I’m happy that I won. I did what I had to”.
Nobody who witnessed him run down double-doper Justin Gatlin to win the 100m in 9.81 seconds or the millions tuning in worldwide for the most-watched TV moment of the Games would have begrudged the hyperbole. “I wanted to get a good start in the finals also; I wanted to go fast; but it’s just one of those things”. Kuchar went 6 under during a six-hole stretch that he capped off with a 15-foot eagle on the 10th hole to get him in the mix, and his wedge to 2 feet for birdie on the 17th put him one shot behind.
Bolt showed an expectant Rio crowd he was in great shape by clocking a season’s best 9.86 as he cantered to victory in his semi-final.
America’s Justin Gatlin, the 2004 Olympic champion who served a four-year suspension between 2006 and 2010 after testing positive for testosterone, ran Bolt close. “I told you guys I was going to do it”, Bolt said.
If it would be an exaggeration to say that a Gatlin win would have destroyed the sport, it would certainly have provided an unseemly epitaph to the seemingly never-ending series of doping controversies and the cack-handed way in which they have been dealt with by the various layers of authority.
Bolt unlaced his now-famous gold spikes and took selfies with the fans.
“It wasn’t a ideal race but the fact that I won – we’re here to win – I’m happy with that”, Bolt said, attributing the slowish times to the 70-minute turnaround between semis and final.
JAPANESE JAMBOREE: Kei Nishikori gave Japan its first Olympic tennis medal in 86 years, overcoming a mid-match lull to beat 2008 champion Rafael Nadal for the bronze in men’s singles. It’s the first time that I’ve ever come out into a stadium and they (the fans) have actually booed someone. “I’d like to see everyone have respect in the audience, as well”. “I’ve never seen it happen before, but I guess some people are more vocal than others”.
“I’d like to stay in the sport to continue inspiring youngsters”, he said.
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At the 2013 world championships in Moscow, with heavy rain falling, Bolt mimed putting up an umbrella and appropriately lightning bolts lit up the sky around the stadium.
