While Asafa Powell, Yohan Blake, Nickel Ashmeade and Bolt won the final race of the day, the U.S. were able to celebrate a gold medal in the women’s 4x100m relay – long jump champion Tianna Bartoletta, Allyson Felix, English Gardner and Tori Bowie recording the second-fastest time in history, a scintillating 41.01 seconds.
Advertisement
After his news conference ended in the wee hours of Saturday morning, the Jamaican sprint superstar who says the Rio Games are his last Olympics came back onto the track with most of the lights in the stadium having already been turned off.
When asked how it felt for his last Olympic race to end on a down note, Justin Gatlin, who will be 38 when the 2020 Tokyo Games begin, responded with “I never said it was my last”.
“And they did exactly that, I had no work to do, just to run to the line”.
“There you go”, Bolt said.
“I feel proud for both of us”. Ko made the first hole-in-one of her career as she raced into contention with a 65. But every one of them has been beaten at the Olympics. “What else can I do to prove to the world I am the greatest?”
Japan took a surprise silver, while Canada was promoted to bronze after the United States, which came in third, was disqualified. “But he’s saying he didn’t grab it until he got across it, so, hopefully we can do some type of appeal”.
“I love competing with the team, because in this sport you’re always by yourself, so competing with four of the best in Jamaica is always wonderful”, he added.
He combined with Asafa Powell, Yohan Blake and Nickel Ashmeade to lift gold in a time of 37.27 seconds.
WRESTLING UPSET: Defending Olympic and world champion Jordan Burroughs was stunned in the quarterfinals of men’s freestyle wrestling. I’m gonna miss the competition.
The relay race gave Bolt the Triple-Triple record that he set for himself on coming to Rio. And they still couldn’t catch him. He declared after his 200m success on Thursday night that his legs refused to go faster and he felt exhausted.
“It’s hard work, sweat and sacrifice”, he said on what was behind his achievements. “I’ve sacrificed so much throughout the season, throughout the years, I’ve been through so much”.
He remains, though, utterly dominant.
Here is a look at Bolt and his Jamaican team-mates ahead of the relay final at 2.35am United Kingdom time in the early hours of Saturday morning. That is all relative, though. Of the five fastest 100-meter runners in history – Bolt, Gay (9.69), Blake (9.69), Powell (9.72), and Gatlin (9.74) – only Bolt has never tested positive.
Two-time 110m hurdles world champion Colin Jackson: “Usain Bolt is just too good”.
Indeed, that is the justification Bolt uses for his decision to make Rio his last Olympics, though he has committed to running at next year’s world championships.
“It’s more than words can exprss now”, said one excited fan.
But after his 4x100m triumph in Rio on Friday, the Rio crowd celebrated in the knowledge that they were witnessing the departure of a legend.
In that same 4×100-meter final the USA squad of Mike Rodgers, Justin Gatlin, Tyson Gay and Trayvon Bromell finished third before being disqualified for a handoff violation on the first exchange of the race.
Advertisement
“It was the twilight zone”, said Gatlin.
