“Bolt doesn’t have the greatest record when he gets challenged'”.
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“Adam’s proven over the years to be a great young talent”, said Jamaica’s favourite son. The group posted a time of 3:21.42, the best of any team Friday night. Running the second leg in the relay, Felix kept the USA up there with the mighty Jamaicans, before English Gardner and Tori Bowie brought the baton, tightly clenched in their hands, home for gold.
As a result Bolt has won the same three events at the Olympics for the third consecutive time – the men’s 100m, the men’s 200m, and the men’s 4x100m relay.
MILESTONE & MEDAL: Christine Sinclair scored in her 250th worldwide match and Canada returned to the Olympic podium with a 2-1 victory over hosts Brazil for the women’s soccer bronze medal.
Of course, LeBron noticed Bolt’s homage and took to Twitter to show his appreciation. Bolt joked. “They really came through for me and I’m happy to have done what I came here to do”.
“You never know what is going to happen in the relay, anything can happen”, Bolt said.
Bolt has already built the beginnings of a business empire, including sports bar Tracks & Records in the Jamaican capital.
The American men crossed the line third, in 37.62.
The handover between lead-off runner Mike Rodgers and Justin Gatlin was adjudged to have started before the exchange zone and the Americans were disqualified as they were on their lap of honour. Jamaica clocked 37.27 seconds, beating second-placed Japan by 0.33. The Canadians were bumped up to third, 37.64.
Canada were the fourth fastest qualifiers in 37.89 with Trinidad and Tobago (37.96), Britain (38.06) and hosts Brazil (38.19) rounding out the field for the final. They were placed there due to their first-round mishap on Thursday, when Felix was elbowed by a Jamaican runner and couldn’t hand the baton cleanly to Gardner.
The Jamaicans will come under threat from the United States, but neither country is showing they have the depth or form to make them standouts. They will remember a huge man powering around the curve, down the homestretch and into history as the greatest sprinter ever.
Ahead of Bolt is another year of competition leading up to the world championships in London, followed by retirement. Same as Carl Lewis. He’s among the most celebrated and lauded athletes of all time, and now he can add another notch to his belt.
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The easy answer: one of them, for sure. We’ll definitely miss his giant grin and awesome speed if this truly is his last Olympics. He badly wanted to lower his own world record of 19.19, set in 2009. The 200m? Sure, he went a then-record 19.3 in Beijing in 2008.
