Bolt from the blue as Blake scorches field
Source: Agencies |
July 1, 2012, Sunday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
WHEN the Olympics start, it will be Usain Bolt doing the chasing.
The World's Fastest Man wasn't even the fastest man in Jamaica on Friday night.
Instead, that honor was snatched away by Yohan Blake, the man they call "The Beast," who blew away Bolt out of the starting blocks and finished the 100-meter final in 9.75 seconds to upset the world-record holder by 0.11 seconds at the Jamaican Olympic trials in Kingston.
How big a shocker? Time will tell. One thing for sure, however, is that the math for the London Olympics has changed dramatically.
"Nine-point-seven-five, it's awesome," Blake said. "I won the world championship, so I've got that. Now, I'm the national champion for Jamaica, so I've got that. And now, I go into the Olympics like this."
Blake is, indeed, the reigning world champion, but that victory came with an asterisk because Bolt, the reigning Olympic champion, didn't run that night in South Korea after being disqualified for a false start.
This was their first rematch, the first real race between the training partners since then. Bolt was considered the favorite, not only because of his world record - 9.58 seconds - but because Blake had never run faster than 9.82 in his life.
Well, now, he has.
The 9.75 seconds on a calm night in Kingston goes down as the best time in the world this year and also breaks the four-year-old National Stadium record; both previous marks were 9.76 - both held by Bolt. Only Bolt, compatriot Asafa Powell and Tyson Gay of the United States have ever run faster.
Afterward, Bolt, the 6-foot-5 defending Olympic champion, said something near the start line was bothering him, beginning with the semifinals, where he also got off to a bad start.
"I had to ignore it," Bolt said. "I had trouble getting out, but I kept feeling like I could not give up."
The World's Fastest Man wasn't even the fastest man in Jamaica on Friday night.
Instead, that honor was snatched away by Yohan Blake, the man they call "The Beast," who blew away Bolt out of the starting blocks and finished the 100-meter final in 9.75 seconds to upset the world-record holder by 0.11 seconds at the Jamaican Olympic trials in Kingston.
How big a shocker? Time will tell. One thing for sure, however, is that the math for the London Olympics has changed dramatically.
"Nine-point-seven-five, it's awesome," Blake said. "I won the world championship, so I've got that. Now, I'm the national champion for Jamaica, so I've got that. And now, I go into the Olympics like this."
Blake is, indeed, the reigning world champion, but that victory came with an asterisk because Bolt, the reigning Olympic champion, didn't run that night in South Korea after being disqualified for a false start.
This was their first rematch, the first real race between the training partners since then. Bolt was considered the favorite, not only because of his world record - 9.58 seconds - but because Blake had never run faster than 9.82 in his life.
Well, now, he has.
The 9.75 seconds on a calm night in Kingston goes down as the best time in the world this year and also breaks the four-year-old National Stadium record; both previous marks were 9.76 - both held by Bolt. Only Bolt, compatriot Asafa Powell and Tyson Gay of the United States have ever run faster.
Afterward, Bolt, the 6-foot-5 defending Olympic champion, said something near the start line was bothering him, beginning with the semifinals, where he also got off to a bad start.
"I had to ignore it," Bolt said. "I had trouble getting out, but I kept feeling like I could not give up."
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