The Jamaican won the Olympic 100m final for a third straight time, capping off a day that also included a world record in the men’s 400m final from South Africa’s Wayde van Niekerk. My legs kind of felt dead at the start.
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“I was exhausted after 100 meters”, Bolt said. I’m a competitor, he’s a competitor and he has pushed me to be the athlete that I am today.
“I expected to go faster, but I’m happy that I won”.
“Once we got back to the second call, we really only had 30 minutes to get ready for the finals”, Gatlin said. I don’t know who decided that.
The race was not flawless, he said afterwards amid the usual media frenzy, but he had achieved his aim of winning gold. American Justin Gatlin, again, won silver with 9.89 seconds and Canada’s Andre de Grasse was third in 9.91 seconds.
“My legs felt a little exhausted from back to back races”. I thought it could have been a fast finals. “However I just focused on my job and got it done”, said Bolt.
But worse than that was the way the race’s semifinals were structured – there was so little time between those qualifying races and the 100-meter final itself that the runners said it cost them seconds off their times.
“The whole issue was over a decade ago”. I’ve been in track and field over 16 years. I can understand that.
“I’m a competitor, he’s a competitor”, Gatlin said. Let the best man win.
RIO DE JANEIRO – There are fast times and impressive performances and bold statements, and then there is actually lining up next to Usain Bolt and trying to beat him in a race.
“The people who were booing me, don’t even know me. I would like to see everyone have respect in the audience as well”.
Bolt, long since cast as the saviour of a sport assailed on all sides by corrosive doubts and doping allegations that have intensified in the past 12 months, said he hoped a new generation of athletes would learn from his sense of showmanship once he had left the stage.
“For me I’m always going to bring my encouragement to the sport”.
TENNIS: Great Britain’s Andy Murray became the first tennis player in Olympic history with two singles gold medals, winning his second in a row by wearing down Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina, 7-5, 4-6, 6-2, 7-5, at in a final that lasted a tad more than four hours.
“I feel pretty proud of myself”.
The world record holder at 100m and 200m showed an expectant Rio crowd he was in great shape by clocking a season’s best 9.86 in his semi-final.
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The Sunday night’s victory has taken Usain Bolt one more step closer to his goal of winning a historic “triple-triple” combination of gold in the 100m, 200m and the 4x100m relay in three consecutive Olympics.
