Images of the Jamaican track superstar Bolt smiling while sprinting toward the finish line ahead of the pack in have become fodder for online memes.
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“I have a long day now to rest, then I have one run tomorrow and more rest so I will have enough energy to definitely try [for the world record]”, he said.
Seven-time Olympic gold medallist Usain Bolt sets his sights on breaking his own world record in the 200m at the Rio Olympics.
Merritt has the best time of the year with 19.74sec, set at the US Olympic trials in Eugene in July. Yohann Blake, a silver medal victor at the London Games four years ago, clocked a time of 20.13 seconds while Nickel Ashmeade finished with a time of 20.15.
He told the Daily Star newspaper: “I’ll party with Harry and teach him the running man”.
Not surprisingly, he did so, winning his heat with a time of 20.28.That was well off his world record of 19.19 as well as the day’s top time of 20.09 by Canada’s Andre De Grasse.
Usain Bolt first introduced his iconic victory pose at the 2008 Beijing Olympics after finishing the 100m event with a new record of 9.69 seconds.
“I’m always exhausted for the first round, but the execution was OK and the key thing is that I qualified easy”.
He openly admits he “loves” the 200m more than any other event and sounds determined to give it a rip as and when he reaches the final.
Even so, he completed the distance in 20.23 seconds to qualify, while his main rival, USA runner Justin Gatlin, advanced with a time of 20.42. Somebody said if I win these three gold medals I would be immortal and I kind of liked it.
“I think its actually much better for the 200m, we’ll have time to recover over the days”.
“I lost faith in God and that’s what hurt me the most, so I gained back my faith and went and retrained and refocused and that’s what keeping me alive today”, Blake said.
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Gatlin, the sport’s pantomime villain, demanded to be shown respect from the stands after his reception for the 100m, which Bolt described as shocking. “I just came out to qualify”. Plus, the heats were relatively early, starting around noon as opposed to the late-night finals.
