For 9.81 glorious seconds on Sunday, all the ills that have dogged athletics recently were forgotten as Usain Bolt stormed to victory in the 100 metres final to become the first man to win three successive Olympic titles on the track.
Advertisement
Bolt took the gold at the Olympic Games in Beijing and London, becoming only the second man to win the 100 meters twice, along with legendary sprinter Carl Lewis.
The first match of the Olympic wrestling tournament produced one of the biggest upsets of the Rio Games: Shinobu Ota of Japan stunned seven-time world champion and 2012 Olympic gold medalist Hamid Soryan of Iran 5-4 in the opening set of Greco-Roman bouts. He’s now 18-0 in those races.
If there was ever any doubt before, it is surely gone now: Usain Bolt is the greatest sprinter in the history of the world. He’s put the rest of the running world on blast since winning a pair of silver medals for Jamaica in 2007 World Championships.
Bolt was slow out of the blocks again but powered through the midsection before easing across the line in a season’s best time of 9.86. “Two more medals to go and I can sign off immortal”, he said.
There had been worries that the 29-year-old could miss out after suffering a grade one tear in his hamstring at the national trials earlier in the summer.
“This is what we train for”.
“I would hope he’ll settle down, get married and start his family”, Jennifer Bolt told CNN’s Don Riddell in a segment that aired Saturday about what she hopes Bolt will do after the Olympics end. (Picture: Getty) Usain Bolt of Jamaica celebrates winning the Men’s 100m final in Rio. Gatlin won the 100 meters at the Olympics in 2004.
The Jamaican had to work harder than expected to see off the challenge of American Justin Gatlin, though, after a sluggish start left him trailing at halfway.
A few minutes before his race, world champion Wayde van Niekerk of South Africa eclipsed what many thought was the most-unbreakable record in the book – Michael Johnson’s 17-year-old mark of 43.18 seconds in 400 meters.
“We got pulled over, in the taxi, and these guys came out with a badge, a police badge, no lights, no nothing just a police badge and they pulled us over”, Lochte told TODAY’s Billy Bush.
Are you happy for Usain Bolt?
Advertisement
“Gatlin knew that this was not going to happen”. Yohan Blake, who took silver in 2012, finished fourth in 9.93. For the first time since 1996, the Olympic regatta was not held in a purpose-built lake, but a natural lagoon that left rowers exposed to the elements in new ways.
