While Bolt got away with taking his foot of the gas, Gatlin was not so fortunate.
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After winning nine of the 12 sprint events in 2008 and 2012 combined, Jamaica have now won the first three in Rio and, with Bolt impressively advancing to the 200m final and their relay teams oozing talent, they could take all six.
“The boys are having a ton of fun out there – I really enjoyed that”, he said. Tonight it got real stiff on me. “At the end of the day, seeing all of these young guys and young ladies out here doing a great job, it’s an honor to be able to be a part of the team and run for my country”. “Hopefully I get a proper lane (in the final), which is always better for me because I’m taller”.
“When you line up against someone like that, you know it’s going to be a completely different ball game”, Fedronic said.
He said that before the competition at Olympic Stadium began. I’m in a lot better shape than 20.08.
The 29-year-old got out well and was well ahead on the home straight before easing off and even sharing a chuckle with Andre De Grasse as the pair crossed the line.
The world-record holder won the 400 meters to give him 4,621 points after five events. You can tell from the 100m he’s getting old. “I need to run efficiently and get into the straight and run the ideal race”.
It makes Thursday’s final interesting.
In the men’s 5,000, defending champion Mo Farah was just as little anxious about the time in his heat.
One of the big questions for Thursday is whether Bolt will crack the 19-second barrier.
Credit (or blame) there goes to Canada’s Andre DeGrasse, who was in the same heat Wednesday night and had no intention of letting Bolt score an easy win. He was even staring Bolt down, as he pulled within 0.02 seconds for a photo finish. No way, but here comes Bolt entertaining the world of sport with his broad smiles a few meters before the finish line.
“He was supposed to slow down”, Bolt told reporters. Bolt, narrowly ahead, smiled back and pointed a finger, as if to say, “I see you”.
Bolt and DeGrasse will now compete in Thursday’s final – a final that a couple of Bolt’s former rivals missed out on.
“That was really unnecessary”, Bolt said after the race.
Reese, who has won more global long jump titles than any other woman, had one last chance to snatch gold but her final round jump of 7.15 was just shy of her compatriot’s mark and she had to settle for a silver.
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Asia provided the next two fastest times with Japan smashing the continental record in 37.68 to comfortably beat the Jamaicans and China setting a new national record of 37.82 to finish second behind the U.S.in the opening heat. Bolt repeated the trick by giving another Games Maker his hat, making him near-impossible to dislike. LaShawn Merritt came up with 19.94sec, but that would be deemed to be painfully sluggish in the final. The only real answer with Bolt, of course, is: Tune in for the race.
