He anchored the 4×100-meter Jamaican relay team to gold in 37.27 seconds, he became the first man to win three consecutive medals in the 100, 200 and 4×100-meter relay.
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Usain Bolt’s apparent Olympic farewell ran perfectly to script as he completed an unprecedented “triple-triple” by leading Jamaica to victory in the men’s 4×100 metre relay final at Rio 2016.
Canada will get its own boost, with 100m bronze medalist and 200m silver medalist Andre De Grasse coming into the team.
The Jamaican made it a clean sweep of 100m, 200m and sprint relay golds from three successive Games to bring his gold medal haul to nine.
It is Bolt’s ninth Olympic gold medal (and his last, he says).
Bolt, 29, has said repeatedly that this is his last Olympics even though he was almost as dominant in Rio as in the previous two Summer Games. “I know he’ll settle down because he has said it”. “I wasn’t happy with the time, my body just wouldn’t respond in the straight”. At the same time, silver for Jamaica allowed Veronica Campbell-Brown to win a medal at a fifth Olympics dating back to the 2000 Sydney Games.
Felix entered the Games as one of just six women to have won four golds in track and field.
Ashton Eaton defended his decathlon title, equalling the Olympic record of 8,893 points that he set in London, to join Daley Thompson and Bob Mathias as a two-time victor of the gruelling event.
The Jamaican team of Asafa Powell, Yohan Blake, Nickle Ashmeade and Bolt came home strongly, beating Japan and the U.S., who were later disqualified for lane infringement.
A baton drop or a botched exchange from elimination and, in Jamaica’s case, from the end of Bolt’s quest for Olympic perfection.
And to make matters worse they were then disqualified afterwards for an illegal passover, meaning Canada picked up the bronze instead. “The pressure is real”.
“I would hope he’ll settle down, get married and start his family”, Jennifer Bolt told Washington Post on Monday. “I’ve proven to the world I’m the greatest in the sport, so it’s mission accomplished pretty much”. He is truly one of the greatest athletes of our or any time. “So this is why he tells me to stop talking about retirement and just take it a year at a time”. “I felt good, but when I came into the straight, my body wouldn’t respond to me”.
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For the United States of America it was the latest entry in a roll of disappointment stretching back as long as Bolt has been winning.
