Usain Bolt put his recent hamstring problems behind him as he recorded 19.89sec to win over 200 metres in his last race before Rio 2016 at the International Association of Athletics Federations’ Diamond League meeting in London – but even Bolt had to give best on the night to the performance of USA 100m hurdler Kendra Harrison, who lowered one of the longest standing world records, the 1988 mark of 12.21 set by Bulgaria’s Yordanka Donkova, with a time of 12.20.
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Former Olympic and world champion Christine Ohuruogu, silver medallist in London four years ago, was fifth in the 400m in a season’s best 51.05 seconds – a race won in a world-leading 49.55 by Shaunae Miller of the Bahamas.
Brushing aside any concerns about the hamstring injury which forced him to withdraw from his country’s Olympic trials in Kingston earlier this month, Bolt ran a solid time of 19.89sec in his first competitive 200m of this season.
Second place in the 200m went to Panamanian Alonso Edward, 20.04, who was close for the first 100m or so before seeing Bolt’s heels for the rest of the way with home boy Adam Gemili, 20.07 finishing third.
Bolt, who remains undefeated in this stadium in East London, is confident he can iron out any glitches with his cornering in his favourite discipline. I need more work, but over time I will get there.
“I thought the cornering wasn’t flawless”.
“I’m definitely feeling good”.
“At least I came here, ran the race and had no injuries”.
“But you can’t forget – is it harder for me to win my first Olympics or is it harder for me to defend?”
“But I think always, in 200, there’s room for running faster”.
“Of course, as a fellow Jamaican, it’s always great to see Jamaicans win”, he said.
That might not be his very best performance but it was good enough to leave everybody else behind at the London Diamond League and it only means he will get more devastating by the time the athletics event starts in Brazil.
Harrison’s reaction is especially awesome because she didn’t initially realize she’d broken the world record; according to Deadspin, “the official time posted after Harrison crossed the line was 0.3 seconds slower than the actual, record time she’d ran”.
“Not making the Olympic team I was really upset”, Harrison said.
“So, I wanted to come out here and show the world I still had it in me”.
“The pressure of already having the American record and being so close to the world record is only going to push me to go for the world”, she said on Thursday. I’ll just keep doing the work.
Incredibly, Harrison had failed to qualify for the Olympics, but made amends by smashing a 28-year-old mark for the women’s 100m hurdles with a time of 12.20secs.
Harrison was 0.37 seconds faster than her USA teammate, Brianna Rollins, who came in second at 12.57 seconds.
However, Bolt said he felt disrespectful and disappointed by the criticism and dismissed the claims by insisting that he has proven himself year after year that he was the greatest, Sport24 reported.
“I tried to hold my form”.
Americans LaShawn Merritt and Justin Gatlin top the 200m list this year with 19.74 and 19.75 seconds respectively. I feel like it’s a cop-out.
And as the Russian doping scandal threatens to overshadow the competition, the Jamaican is ready to deliver a good news story for track and field.
There were a couple of victories for British women on the fast newly-laid track: Laura Muir in the 1,500 as well as the quartet of Asha Philip, Desiree Henry, Dina Asher-Smith and Daryll Neita in the 4X100-meter relay.
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Muir is not the only British athlete heading to Rio on a high with the women’s 4x100m relay team sending a huge warning to their rivals by setting a national record and running the fastest time anywhere in the world.
