On Thursday night, the world’s fastest man slowed down.
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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. Objectively, it was a great performance.
But there’s only one opponent that can really beat Bolt: Time. Bolt strained down the backstretch, his face fixed into a grimace. The time came up: 19.78. He didn’t break a world record.
The two-time world champion became just the third man to win the Olympic decathlon twice, a feat last achieved by Briton Daley Thompson at the 1984 Los Angeles Games.
The race for “the next one” is August 19, when De Grasse will run for Canada in the men’s 4 x 100m relay.
In the lead-up to the Olympics, Bolt insisted the time is approaching. With no competitor to push him to world-historical dominance, Bolt simply ran fast enough to win. She is coached in Los Angeles by Lawrence Johnson, along with training partners Brianna Rollins and Kristi Castlin, who finished 1-3 in the 100-meter hurdles on Wednesday.
British team-mate Eilidh Doyle also has the relays to look forward to after a frustrating night of her own at the Olympic Stadium.
The result underlined US supremacy in the hurdle events, with Kerron Clement winning the men’s 400 earlier and Brianna Rollins, Nia Ali and Kristi Castlin completing an American podium sweep in the 100 on Wednesday.
Andre de Grasse secured silver for Canada and there was heartbreak for Team GB captain Adam Gemili, who finished fourth in the same time as bronze medal victor Christophe Lemaitre of France. At this stage in his career, Bolt’s maximum effort can not possibly match his max effort from 2008 and 2009, when he was at his physical peak.
The thrilling finish follows a three-way dead heat for silver in the men’s 100m butterfly last week as legendary American Michael Phelps recorded an identical time to South Africa’s Chad Le Clos and Hungary’s Laszlo Cseh, all of whom played second fiddle to Singapore’s Joseph Schooling.
Dutchman Churandy Martina was less than a head away with a time of 20.13. “I’m getting older. I don’t recover like I used to”.
“Yesterday I ran relaxed”.
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“I don’t know about the 200m in the future. So I guess it’s just age and all the rounds that’s taken a toll”. Came into the straight, I tried, but my body would not respond to me. I’m not so young and fresh, but it’s just one of those things. In a way, he established himself as an apparent heir to Bolt. He had also won silver in the 100 metres sprint event, just second to Bolt.
