Rio de Janeiro: Usain Bolt will race the 200m final on Thursday after comfortably winning his semi-final, but there was no place for American rival Justin Gatlin as he failed to qualify.
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Bolt said he would have a better chance of achieving his goal to run under 19 seconds if he gets a high lane, adding: “If I get a lower lane it’s always harder for me to run the corner when it is tighter”.
Bolt and De Grasse finished just 0.02 seconds apart in Wednesday night’s second semifinal, with Bolt forced to use an extra late spurt to come out ahead. But as they were laughing at each other, Bolt pushed his chest just across the line for a time of 19.78 seconds – the fastest of the tear – while De Grasse set a Canadian record of 19.80.
Bolt did it as Andre closed in on him towards the end of the race and the two were exchanging smiles well after crossing the finish line.
The 24-year-old, beaten by Schippers at last year’s World Championships in Beijing, exacted revenge by blazing home in 21.78 seconds. Bolt wagged his finger at De Grasse as the two shared a laugh at the finish line.
A win for Bolt tonight will make him only the third athlete in Olympic history to win three Olympic gold medals in two individual events after USA swimmer Michael Phelps, who won 100m butterfly and 200m individual medley gold at the 2004, 2008 and 2012 Olympics and American athlete Ray Ewry, who won the standing long jump and the standing high jump, from 1900 to 1908. “He didn’t. I said, ‘What are you doing, is it the semis?'”.
“But that’s a good thing I suppose that I’m not satisfied with that and I will go and push on”.
Lest we forget, Bolt must win the 200m to keep his “Triple-Triple” dream alive and secure three sprint titles at three straight Games.
“He was supposed to slow down”, said Bolt, who chastised himself for being lazy.
“It feels like silver, but I’m totally OK with silver”, said Jager, the first American to medal in the event since Brian Diemer in 1984.
Usain Bolt says it “wasn’t cool” that a competitor in the semi-final of the 200-metre sprint tried to beat him. “So I don’t know what the solution is”.
LASHAWN MERRITT: It’s not Bolt, but Merritt, who now has the year’s best time at 200 meters (19.74 seconds). But it’s not Merritt’s best race. “I am younger, so we will see what happens”.
Gatlin added, however, that his Olympic days might not be over, citing the in-form 40-year-old sprinter Kim Collins with one eye on the Tokyo Games in four years’ time. The man who received it, Shawn Crawford, didn’t think it was a fair ruling and gave Martina back his silver, though the official results stayed the same. But he isn’t checking out completely from the race.
The U.S. announced its Olympic 4×100 relay teams for the first round and there’s no Justin Gatlin.
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THE REST: None of the following four – Christophe Lemaitre, Alonso Edward, Adam Gemili or Ramil Guliyev – have cracked 20 seconds this year.
