The press conference certainly was an entertaining one as Bolt got serenaded by Norwegian reporter before exiting the stage with the dancing girls clad in traditional carnival costume.
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American sprinter Mike Rodgers has warned that it will take a low 9.7 seconds time to win the men’s 100m final at the Olympic Games and sought to assure that he meant no disrespect to Usain Bolt when he criticised his withdrawal from the National Championships. “I’m looking forward to it”.
“Championships are what matters”.
No one in athletics – and few in sport – draw crowds like Bolt and how to fill the void he will leave when he is gone is turning into one of track and field’s biggest dilemmas.
And it is the 200m mark he wants to break more than anything.
Bolt does not have news conferences, he has events.
Bolt clocked 19.89 seconds in 200m at the Anniversary Games in London in July in his first appearance since pulling out of the Jamaican trials. I think it’s going to be a little bit harder because I missed out on trials and few weeks of training, but you never know. I think it’s the longest I have been in a village as normally we get in four days before or five days before but been here a week now. “This is why people love me so much and it’s my personality, it’s what I do”. I said I wanted to go under 19 seconds and I don’t know if that will be possible but nothing tried, nothing done, so I will go out there and push myself.
“He (Mills) said after London, “That’s one of the worst races you’ve ever run”.
“I never focus on any one individual because when you do that, what happens when that person isn’t there?”
“For me going out there, I never worry about that”. I just go out there and compete. People should have faith (in athletics), like I said, because we are heading in the right direction. “We have to go through a rough time before we get to the good times”. Bolt also emphasized his goal to keep the 200m race world record.
The six-time Olympic gold medallist is chasing a third straight clean sweep of the 100m, 200m and 4x100m events at the Rio Games before he hangs up his boots but admitted on Monday during Team Jamaica’s press conference that he still gets pre-race jitters.
After a series of doping scandals, and major issues with organisation, the sight of Bolt on the track this weekend will give a huge boost to Rio 2016 organisers desperate to sell tickets.
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It was an ominous warning to his rivals – he still left China with three gold medals.
