“I have the utmost respect for Usain”, said Gatlin, who won Olympic gold at the 2004 Athens Games and bronze four years ago in London.
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The 29-year-old will have a day to recover from the semifinals before he races in Thursday’s final – unlike the mere 80-something minutes he was afforded in Sunday’s 100 – and already the signs are looking ominous for those sprinters looking to stop him.
“I said, ‘Who is that?’ Typically you don’t see walk-ons that compete that well”, said Sharpe, himself a former 100- and 200-metre Canadian champion and Olympic teammate of Ben Johnson.
The injury had forced Bolt to skip the national Olympic trials in Jamaica. There are so many positions in the stadium, it’s really kind of figuring out what angle you want to get on that race, and then getting there early enough to stake your claim. “The 100m is always the hardest one for me”.
The time was a long way off his 2009 world record of 9.58 but that was never the issue at stake.
He has now won gold in the 100-meter race for three consecutive Olympics, and he’s the first athlete to ever do so. It was shocking, the first time I heard booing in a stadium. ‘I’d like to see everyone have respect in the audience, as well’. “When he comes away from the track, he’s a great guy, he’s a cool guy”. There is no bad blood.
“He has pushed me to be the athlete I am today”. When I crossed the race, I didn’t even know if I was going to be on the podium.
“A true, true warrior of the sport”, said Yohan Blake, the Jamaican who used to be his main rival. Van Niekerk finished in 43.03 seconds – 0.15 seconds faster than Johnson ran on August 26, 1999 in Seville, Spain.
Van Niekerk trained with Bolt in Jamaica ahead of the Games.
After a slow start from the blocks, Bolt was trailing from behind by a few strides from USA runner Justin Gatlin. He’s got speed and strength.
A match-up between the two over 400m will not happen.
In running against those veteran performers, De Grasse acknowledged it was a learning experience that he intends to take forward when the next Summer Olympics take place in Tokyo in 2020.
That beat Canada’s previous overall record of eight, which it achieved at the 2010 and 2014 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Sochi, respectively.
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The victory is the first rung on the ladder towards an unprecedented triple triple of sprint titles for the Jamaican, with the 200m and 4x100m relay still to come. Few, if any, would bet against him.
