Usain Bolt after the 200m in Lausanne in 2008 (© Olivier ALLENSPACH/Switzerland)
Jamaica’s three times Beijing Olympic champion and World record holder (100m – 200m – 4x100m) Usain Bolt is the first athlete who has confirmed his participation for the 34th edition of Athletissima, which will take place on 7 July at the La Pontaise stadium.
Athletissima is a Super Grand Prix status meeting as part of the IAAF World Athletics Tour 2009.
Athletissima will be Bolt’s first 200m race in Europe this season. As per last year, the exceptional Jamaican sprinter will compete in the 200m, which has always been his favourite event in the capital of Vaud so far.
Bolt who has come to Lausanne every year since 2006 says he “loves this track, its long curve and the great public.”
That’s the reason why he plans to run this event rather than the 100m. His fans are lucky: they will get the chance to see him twice as long!
Last year, Bolt dominated the race in 19.63 sec, equalling USA’s Xavier Carter’s result in 2006, which is the stadium record. With this time, Bolt became the sixth winner of the Athletissima 200m to run under 20 seconds.
The first athlete who achieved such a performance on this track was USA’s Michael Johnson, back in 1995. Johnson of course lost his World record (19.32) for the distance set in Atlanta 1996 to Bolt in the final of the 2008 Olympic Games, when the amazing Jamaican clocked 19.30.
The time Bolt ran in Lausanne last year is the fourth equal fastest in the history of the 200m and Bolt’s second fastest performance.
“It’s true that it was a good race with a very good time, even if I let up a bit at the end, as it was the end of the season and I felt a little bit tired,” confirmed Bolt. This time, things should be different. Indeed, the Lausanne meeting will be in the middle of the season.
Finally, let’s remember that Bolt had already run under 20 seconds in Lausanne two years earlier, clocking 19.88 in that famous race in which four sprinters cracked the 20 seconds mark.
Pierre-André Pasche for the IAAF