Two days after becoming the first athlete to win three Olympic gold medals in the 100 meters, Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt returned Tuesday to Rio’s Engenhao stadium for the 200-meter qualifiers. “I’m exhausted now, but happy to be through”, Bolt said after his heat run.
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Team GB’s best medal hope in the 200m is Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake, who ran 19.95 in May to become the second fastest ever Brit in the 200m. “I’ll be much better tomorrow”.
“I’ve been training for the last four years to make it back and go through replicating what I did [in London], without, obviously, the fall”, he told the Cambridge Times in July.
Bolt began to ease down 50m from the line but still did enough to win easily, a marked contrast to Nigeria’s Ejowvokoghene Oduduru who was eyeballs out just to finish in Bolt’s wake in a personal best time of 20.34. “I think the semifinals, I can tell what shape I’m in, how I’m feeling”.
Unlike the frosty reception afforded him by a jeering Olympic Stadium crowd before the 100m heats and final, Gatlin was actually cheered in bright sunny conditions.
With the silver, Gatlin now holds five Olympic medals overall. “The body sometimes checks out, but mentally you’ve got to push through”, he said. Americans Justin Gatlin and Ameer Webb also qualified.
“You’ve just got to take that 100m hat off, put the 200m hat on and get ready for the next round”, he said. “We all want to come together like a brotherhood”. Gatlin clocked 20.42 seconds, and De Grasse completed his half lap in 20.09 seconds.
De Grasse will be joined by 100 gold medallist Usain Bolt of Jamaica, who cruised through his qualifying heat.
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Bolt’s countryman Yohan Blake has run the second fastest 200m time in history but is only fifth favourite for the final.
