But he said afterwards: “I didn’t really run that hard”.
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“I’m ready”, said Mitchell-Blake, who is a college student in the U.S. and was until recently an unknown in Britain.
When it was over, Bolt walked over and hugged his closest pursuer, Oduduru, who finished only.06 seconds behind.
Bolt must now be accepted as the greatest ever Olympic sprinter, indeed just the greatest sprinter. The former holds the world standard, an uncanny 19.19 (Michael Johnson had run 19.32 in Atlanta to set a record some felt would stand for decades).
It was considered a win-win for the Olympics and NBC, which pays the most sizable chunk of the $4.1 billion in worldwide broadcast rights the International Olympic Committee received for the 2014 and 2016 Olympics.
Jamaica’s Usain Bolt (3L) competes in the Men’s 200m Round 1 during the athletics event at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games at the Olympic Stadium in Rio de Janeiro on August 16, 2016. While Bolt was kicking out of the blocks, as is his preference in this race, he took it easy down the stretch.
American Justin Gatlin joined him in progressing from the heats at an again sparsely-populated Olympic Stadium and Sunday night’s boos for the two-time drug cheat were this time replaced by cheers. Indeed, Bolt’s main challenge in Sunday night came from America’s Justin Gatlin – the disgraced NY sprinter who tested positive for testosterone in April 2006. Canada’s Andre de Grasse claimed bronze in 9.91 seconds – the same finishing order as in last year’s World Championships.
After the historic run, the overjoyed runner said, I am a living legend.
“I’m still young, it’s going to be a while, it’s going to be tough to break that barrier of 9.5”, he said.
He has also spoken about being the first man in history to dip under 19 seconds, but considering his previous quickest time of 19.32sec was set when winning the 200m at London 2012 since breaking the world record, he will probably have to be content with the gold minus any new record.
“I’m exhausted”, Bolt admitted.
Gemili was pleased with his effort and feels he is in good condition ahead of the semi-finals.
“Best man won”, Baylor’s Trayvon Bromell said.
“I’m a little bit exhausted now”, claimed Bolt after the race.
“If by any chance it doesn’t happen, I’m going to feel sad because I didn’t do what I wanted to accomplish”.
But McMillan, who coaches De Grasse at ALTIS in Pheonix, said he didn’t run the race according to plan.
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When Spencer checked his frame right after taking the picture, he knew he had a good image, but he didn’t know how good until his phone started blowing up at the end of the night with friends and family congratulating him, “which is always nice to receive”, he says.
