Usain Bolt bid a blazing-fast farewell to the Rio de Janeiro Games – and likely the Olympics altogether – Friday night with yet another anchor leg for the ages.
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Bolt, who has now won an astonishing 20 Olympic and world titles, matched American sprinter and long jumper Carl Lewis and Finnish long-distance runner Paavo Nurmi with nine Olympic golds.
In the shadow of mighty Usain Bolt, Allyson Felix achieved something unprecedented in women’s track and field Friday by winning her fifth Olympic gold medal.
Jamaica took the 4x100m men’s relay gold and with that Bolt completed the historic “triple-triple” – three golds in three consecutive Olympics – just two days before his 30th birthday.
Bolt, who has won the 100, 200 and 4×100 relay gold medals at Beijing, London and now Rio, crossed in 37.27 seconds.
When Bolt received the yellow baton from Ashmeade for his final run down the straightaway, he was even, maybe a step behind, Aska Cambridge of Japan and Trayvon Bromell of the United States.
While Jamaican great Bolt said his Olympic career is over, 34-year-old Gatlin has not ruled out competing at Tokyo in four years and is already looking forward to coming up against Bolt at the World Championships in London in 2017.
Japan finished in 37.60 seconds to claim the silver medal. As a result, Canada was elevated to bronze.
Bolt, who made his Olympic debut in Athens 2004, confirmed that Rio 2016 was indeed his last hooray at an Olympic Games, and kissed the track following his 200m victory.
For the last eight years Usain Bolt has dominated the world of athletics at the Olympic games. This is the third straight gold in the event for the country. “You never knew from the start that this was going to happen to me, and now it has”, he said. I will definitely miss the sport, miss the Olympics because it’s the biggest stage. “I look at it as an accomplishment”.
“You’re not going to fill that gap overnight, but there are great, talented athletes out there”.
“We didn’t get the record but we’re happy with the win and be a part of history also”.
Bolt insisted all of his gold medals were special.
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“I am just relieved”, Bolt said. American swimmer Michael Phelps, who has 23 gold medals, is a clear victor.
