Bolt, Fraser-Pryce sprint to worlds history
Print Edition
Usain Bolt is, yet again, perfect.
And with three gold medals in Moscow, the Jamaican great became the most successful athlete in the 30-year history of the world championships.
The 4x100-meter relay gold yesterday erased the memories of the 100 title he missed out on in South Korea two years ago because of a false start. And, in combination with a similar 100-200-4x100 triple from Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Bolt was instrumental in giving Jamaica the first ever sweep in those six sprint events.
The tall Jamaican was trailing Justin Gatlin when he got the baton on the anchor leg, but a botched United States handover and his superlative speed were enough to see him, and his country, win.
He gritted his teeth, dipped at the line, and then grinned with relief. “I am very satisfied,” Bolt said, perhaps understating his greatness on the track.
Bolt had already won the 100 and 200. It was his second such sprint triple at the world championships, matching the two he has won at the Olympics.
With his victory, Bolt moved to the top of the all-time world championships medals table with eight gold and two silver, edging Carl Lewis, who has eight gold, one silver and one bronze.
And again the Luzhniki Stadium and its 40,000 fans were turned into a Bolt party.
With palpable relief after a week of all-business during his earlier races, Bolt finally let go. His arms across his chest, he kicked his legs as he went down lower and lower to imitate a traditional eastern European dance to the delight of the crowd. “A lot of energy here today,” Bolt said.
He threw his shoes into the crowd and struck his iconic “Lightning Bolt” pose again, knowing he finally could let go of the stress as Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds” blared.
Twenty minutes earlier, Fraser-Pryce became the first woman in world championship history to sweep the sprint events, anchoring Jamaica to gold in the 4x100-meter relay.
Unlike Bolt, Fraser-Pryce got the baton with a big lead. With her pink hair extensions swaying in the air behind her, she kept on building on it to cross in a championship record of 41.29 seconds.
In other finals yesterday, Teddy Tamgho of France won the men’s triple jump, edging Pedro Pichardo of Cuba. Will Claye of the United States took bronze.
Eunice Sum of Kenya held off Olympic champion Mariya Savinova of Russia at the end to win the women’s 800 meters, with American Brenda Martinez third.
Asbel Kiprop of Kenya retained his title in the men’s 1,500 meters. Matthew Centrowitz of the United States earned the silver and Johan Cronje of South Africa took the bronze.
Christina Obergfoell of Germany won her first major javelin title at 31, beating Kimberley Mickle of Australia to the gold medal. Defending champion Maria Abakumova of Russia took bronze.
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