The feat may have garnered more attention if he weren’t sharing the stage with Bolt.
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The Jamaican simply laid waste to the best of the rest in the sprinting world to win his eighth track gold medal in what he has said will be his last individual race at the Olympics before his retirement next year. Following the Olympic disappointment, Powell immediately went about exorcising his demons, setting a new national record of 9.87 seconds in September of that year and breaking the 100m world record in Athens in 2005 with a blistering time of 9.77 seconds!
All of this does not matter – although he betrayed some sign of frustration at his failure to deliver everything he spoke of. Bolt has never been just a sprinter.
Bolt said: “I don’t need to prove anything else”.
“I am trying to be one the greatest”, Bolt said.
“I’m just waiting to see what the media have to say and if they put me in that bracket”, he said when asked how he stacked up against football star Pele and boxing legend Ali. I ran hard off the turn but when I came into the straight it was like my body would not respond to me.
So, the 100 was his hobby, the 200 was his day job, and when he started talking about goals for these Games, he said immortality was the main one. “I’m getting older. I had to run hard yesterday”.
Bolt bent down to kiss the finish line in lane six, his lane, as he completed his lap of honour before performing his signature “Lightning Bolt” pose, to huge cheers. Canadian Andre de Grasse took silver with 20.02sec and France’s Christophe Lemaitre winning bronze (20.12).
De Grasse pushed Bolt in Wednesday’s semifinal in hopes of wearing out his older rival.
A damp track – 15 minutes before the Jamaican was scheduled to take the stage the winds blew, the temperature dropped and a cold rain briefly fell – probably mitigated against that, and Bolt was easing up at the end as the finish line clock came into view.
For all his efforts, Eaton still had a few seconds over him for the conclusive 1500m, and was the swifter runner.
The Oregon alum shared his victory with wife Brianne-Theisen Eaton, who won a bronze medal in the heptathlon for Canada this week. Wait, what? Nevermind. Usain Bolt has done it again, winning his 8th gold medal and once again in a dominating fashion.
“One day, I’m going to have to meet Daley, shake his hand and thank him for giving me something to chase after”. I’ve really got people taking a look at where the talent is coming from.
“Can I do three in a row?”
“Maybe for you guys it was a surprise”, Kovacs told reporters.
He had notlost his touch by the evening, producing a bombardment of big throws that simply obliterated the opposition, including three over 22m, the best of which, in the fifth round, was an Olympic record of 22.52m.
It was a one-two for the United States with Joe Kovacs taking silver and New Zealand’s Thomas Walsh winning bronze.
Crouser was of four US gold medalists on the night. “So, to be eight-time gold medalist is shocking”. Bartoletta, a 2005 world champion who gave up the sport as she struggled with injuries, secured victory with her penultimate leap of 7.17m to knock Reese out of the gold medal standings.
Silver went to the early leader, Sunette Viljoen of South Africa, with 64.80m. De Grasse won silver as he came next at 19.80. In the qualifying heats, Allyson Felix said she was bumped by a Brazilian runner and the US advanced after running a solo time trial.
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With opposition on the track, they should improve on that today.
