It had everything in the race – the grace, the grit – but the one that led Usain Bolt to sprint glory on Sunday was his desire, the strong will power to prove doubters wrong.
A sore hamstring, a stiff back, a car crash, defeats to training partner Yohan Blake had raised thousand questions about his readiness but they all were blown away by a breathtaking display.
On a chilly August night in front of 80,000 fans, holding the hottest ticket in sport, the price of which rose to as high as £2,012, Bolt rewrote the history by becoming the first man to cross the line first in two Olympic 100-metre finals.
Carl Lewis won this event twice in 1984 and 1988 but the US legend’s second success came only after original winner Canada’s Ben Johnson was disqualified for doping.
Bolt’s 9.63 seconds in London was the second-fastest time ever behind his own 9.58 at Berlin and was of course an Olympic record, lowering his own 9.69sec blitz in Beijing.
At the London Games where Michael Phelps reinforced his credentials as the greatest ever Olympian, Bolt too created a place for himself in sporting folklore by this race.
He had always been the focal point of the London Olympics despite his recent woes and was carefully guarded by his Jamaican colleagues and Games’ organisers. Since his arrival he kept himself not just away from the press but from the fellow athletes too.
‘Some of you guys doubted me. I just had to show the world I was the greatest,’ Bolt told after he returned to his usual self, one who loves to make fun, at the post-race press conference.
Bolt had some worry for himself too. Two close defeats to Yohan Blake in Jamaican trials provided the wake-up call, admitted Bolt, the man, who is often boyish but always serious in his business.
‘The trials woke me up. Yohan gave me a wake-up call,’ he said. ‘He knocked on my door and said “Usain this is the Olympic year, wake up”, after that I refocused and got my head together,’ he said.
The first message came in heat when he ran the distance in 10.09 seconds, only the ninth fastest, which, however, was enough to prove his fitness.
Anyone who still had any doubts, they were blown away when he barely jogged in the last 10 metres in the semi-final and still finished the race in 9.87 seconds, only behind Blake and Justin Gatlin.
Tyson Gay joined them in the final making it the first 100m race since 1968 that four current fastest men in the world had all made it to the start line.
But Bolt was always going to be the man to beat. His start was not great but the finish was phenomenal as expected. A sense of satisfaction followed when bent down to kiss the turf before celebrating the victory in his typical fashion.
‘I would not say it’s a perfect race, because my coach won’t say that,’ said Bolt, while giving an impression of walking over the moon at the press conference.
‘Remember I told you my coach said, “Stop worrying about your start, the best of your race is at the end, that’s where you rule”. So I stopped worrying about the start and I executed, so it worked.’
The suggestion that he has already done enough to achieve his goal to become a ‘legend’ found just one dissenter now and that is Bolt himself, who is now yearning for an unprecedented golden double with the 200-metre win.
-With New Age input
