Gatlin and Meite ran with a slight tailwind, and Bolt’s heat had a slight headwind.
Advertisement
Bolt won, 9.79 seconds to 9.80. Yet Bolt had eased up, in complete control of his heat with around 20 meters to go.
The Jamaican, who will be 30 next Sunday, won the 100m, 200m, and 4×100 relay treble in 2008 in Beijing, and 2012 in London.
Justin Gatlin needs to overcome the painful defeat from previous year and his doping-offence past if he wants to beat Usain Bolt in what are likely his last Olympics.
He also said it was his personal desire to remain among the world’s greatest sprinter. “It wasn’t the best start”.
“It wasn’t the best start; it felt kind of sluggish”, Bolt said after his 12:40 p.m. heat.
The excitement and sheer quality of “The Champs” where huge crowds watch the annual schools championship, are an indication of how deep the sport runs in Jamaican society and success at the highest level naturally spurs the next generation.
“Hopefully, tomorrow I’ll feel much better”, he added of Sunday’s action when the semis and final take place late in the evening.
Any void left by aging stars “is able to be filled by anyone”, he said, and that’s the precise attitude that makes Gatlin feel comfortable about the future of sprinting.
Usain Bolt begins his campaign at the Rio 2016 Olympics with the Heats in the 100m on Saturday with the final slated for Sunday. The winner will play in the Sunday finals against the victor of Spain’s Rafael Nadal and Argentina’s Juan Martin del Potro, who knocked out No. 1 Novak Djokovic in the first round. Vicaut has a habit of flaming out in championships.
Meanwhile, the Mack Horton-Sun Yang controversy in the pool over Yang’s past drug suspension will be revisited with the expected 100m confrontation between a clean Bolt and American Justin Gatlin who spent four years under suspension for testing positive twice.
Again and again Gatlin arrives at major championships running faster than the double Olympic champion.
Bolt posed for photographers in front of the statue, alternating his trademark gesture in which he pulls back an imaginary bow and arrow, and holding his arms out wide, palms turned up like the soapstone monument to Christ looming behind him. But who do you think will be psychologically and athletically tougher when the gun goes for the final?
The 34-year-old Gatlin, the fastest man in the world this year, led the way at 10.01sec. It’s the culture [in Rio] to party. “But when we step on the track, we want to beat each other”. American teenager Simone Biles, a three-time world all-around champion, is the favorite for vault.
Against the backdrop of governing body and state corruption, the dishonesty of individual athletes loses some of its capacity to shock. Doping questions have dominated the Rio Games, and Gatlin’s name has been dragged into that mire due to his 2006 violation for using testosterone.
“Now I got the jitters out of the way, I’m ready to keep moving forward”, Bromell said to Lewis Johnson.
Turning back the clock in his fifth and final Games, Phelps produced a blistering third leg of butterfly to restore his team’s lead and tee up victory after Britain’s Adam Peaty had threatened to gatecrash his party. “He’s so fast I am afraid of going to the bathroom and missing him”.
Bolt visibly feeds off the support of the crowd and in Rio on Saturday he was clearly in his element, firing up the spectators and then asking for quiet when he needed to concentrate and move to his marks. “Without him it will be really boring”. “I personally think we’re on the right track”.
Advertisement
Her son has made her a promise, which could bring more agony for Gatlin – the embodiment of leniency towards convicted cheats.
