Bolt had earlier defended his 100 and 200 metres championships that he won in Beijing and London Olympics.
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Bolt completed his triple-triple after Allyson Felix won her record fifth Olympic gold medal when the Americans – who needed to set a qualifying time in a solo rerun hours after dropping the baton in the preliminaries and getting a second chance on protest – won Friday’s final in 41.01 seconds.
For the last eight years Usain Bolt has dominated the world of athletics at the Olympic games.
If the ruling stands, it will mark the ninth time since 1995 the USA men have been disqualified or failed to get the baton around at the Olympics or world championships. De Grasse had his third Olympic medal in Rio. This is my last one.
“But I’ve done all I can do, I’ve proven to the world I’m the greatest in the sport, so for me it’s just mission accomplished”.
In February, Bolt had confirmed that he will not compete at Tokyo 2020.
He now also leaves the Olympic stage as just the second man to win the 4x100m three times.
Carrying the hopes and spirit of Jamaica, Usain Bolt anchored the 4×100 meter relay and combined with Asafa Powell, Yohan Blake, and Nickel Ashmeade, Jamaica finished the race on Friday night in 37.27 seconds. While it is Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps whom the world will miss the most from the next edition, Indians have another name- Abhinav Bindra. With typical understated modesty, the 29-year-old sprinter told reporters after the race: “Well there you go”. “I told them all to wait around, you don’t know what can happen”.
Jamaica were never seriously challenged in the event, as they got the baton around smoothly to finish ahead of Japan and Canada – who were upgraded to bronze following the disqualification of the United States. “It was a nightmare”.
“It has been a good feeling working as a team. All that hard work just crumbles”, said Gatlin.
Japan was a surprise medalist, claiming silver after running a surprising 37.60, while the U.S., who had originally gained bronze, were later disqualified.
He’s likely to have one more outing, at next year’s world championships in London, before closing an worldwide career that started humbly at the Athens Olympics in 2004 when 17-year-old Bolt failed to get out of the 200m heats.
In the 200 metres, he failed to advance from the semi-finals.
Bolt set his first 100m world record (9.72sec) in May 2008 in NY.
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“It’s a lot of pressure, the stress that I’ve gone through”. I ran my last Olympic run, thanks.. I’ve done like 500 since I’ve been here. I’ve done as much as I possibly can for my country and will continue to do so after I retire from the sport. She had been through injury, the inability to defend her 200-meter title because she didn’t qualify at the USA trials and a near disqualification in the relay heats. “I think we’ve been through some rough patches but we’re on the right track with the youngsters that we have”, he said.
