Should Bolt win another gold in the 4x100m relay on Friday he will have won three sprint golds in each of the last three Games, another feat that has never been achieved. They were disqualified from the Olympics in 2008 for the same reason.
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China (37.90secs) was elevated to fourth, while Great Britain (37.98secs) and Brazil (38.41secs) were fifth and sixth respectively.
The form of Bolt’s teammates has been patchy at these Games.
A small storm of anticipation had built around the final, arising from De Grasse’s unorthodox challenge of Bolt in their Wednesday semifinal. The 21-year-old ran a blistering anchor leg, nearly reeling in both the American and Japanese teams.
Japan, who set an Asian record in the semi-finals, started brightly and the United States also loomed large.
Then, elation for the Canadians. Cerutti was part of a team that won silver in London four years ago. But shortly after the race’s conclusion the IAAF ruled that the teams representing the US and Trinidad and Tobago were disqualified, with Canada taking bronze as a result.
“This is nothing new to me”. I wanted to get that medal not just for myself but for my whole team so I gave it my all.
What was really going behind those smiles was finally revealed today after Usain Bolt and Andre De Grasse took gold and silver in the 200m.
“I felt like I had a great shot”, he said. If Canada keeps their medal, Richmond Hill, Ont.’s Mobolade Ajomale will get one too because he ran the heats.
Team GB’s Gemili told the BBC he was gutted to miss out on a bronze medal. Bolt announced that this was his last individual race at the Olympics as he is retiring next year. It was the first time any country had swept the 100 and 200 metres sprints in both men’s and women’s competitions at an Olympic Games.
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Even the prospect of witnessing a once-in-a-century athlete in his pomp was not enough to fill the Rio Olympic Stadium but what the crowd lacked in numbers, they made up for in noise as they welcomed Bolt to the track like a rock star. You don’t have to be a track and field aficionado to enjoy the world’s fastest man making the rest of the fastest men in the world look slow.
