Usain Bolt clocks a superb 9.79 seconds in the 100m as his training partners Daniel Bailey and Yohan Blake join him under 10 seconds (© Getty Images)
17 July 2009ParisThe fourth leg of the ÅF Golden League in Paris was obviously about great performances and great duels but may we dare say it was – almost – all about one man.
He was made the poster boy for the competition, a whole section of the magnificent Stade de France was named after his country and spectators who had bought tickets for this designated area were given free black caps that read ‘JA-MAI-CA’; all members of the organising committee including security stewards, basket boys and judge officials on the track were wearing yellow, green and black T-shirts that once again read ‘JAMAICA’; Reggae music was played throughout the evening and to the announcement of his name at 9.40pm the 46,500 spectators erupted into the loudest cheer of the cold Parisian evening.
His name in case you needed confirmation is Usain Bolt, the three time Olympic champion and holder of three World records. Exactly one month ago, at the World Athletics Tour meeting in Ostrava, Czech Republic, Bolt ran a slightly wind assisted 9.77 (2.1m/s) after what he personally described as “probably the second worst start I ever had.”
Fast forward one month; the setting is far from ideal in cold (18 degrees) and wet conditions; the wind is blowing into the sprinters and Bolt seems like he’s glued to the blocks when the gun fires, he who had been fine tuning his start in the blocks 24 hours previously!
“Tonight’s start was worse than Ostrava!” he joked in the post event press conference.
Yet the man who stands 1.95m tall turned the power on 30 metres into his race and blasted through the finish line in his fastest legal time of the year and a new meeting record 9.79. Now only two hundredths of a second separate him from the yearly world season leader and reigning World champion Tyson Gay.
World Champs really really important
“I came here to perform for the fans so ask them if I ran a good race,” Bolt carried on. “I am pleased even if I didn’t do so well in the first 30 metres.
“It’s good for me to know that even if I get a bad start I can pick up at the end of the race; it is my best part of the race, I get that from running the 200.”
About the unfavourable weather conditions Bolt said: “it is just like training to be ready for Berlin. I have to be ready if I have to run in the rain or if I have to run into a head wind. For me there is no “ifs”…if I had had a better start or if it hadn’t been raining. I just look at the time and that is the time I run.
“But when you run in bad conditions you have to push very hard but still be careful at the same time because you don’t want to get injured at this time of the season."
“Today I went pretty much all out maybe I relaxed the last five metres but those don’t really matter,” he explains. And when asked if he will slow down in Berlin like he did at last year’s Beijing Olympic Games Usain smiles…”I don’t know. When it happens you will know!”
After what can be described as a fabulous race, Bolt who hasn’t lost a race since his historical treble in Beijing, is looking forward to his next stop in London where he will run another 100m and then a 4x100 and then the World Championships in Berlin where he will aim at becoming the first Jamaican male ever to win a sprint World title.
“For me it is very important to prove that last year wasn’t a joke. That is why the World Championships are really really important.”
Training partners steal the show
There were more reasons for Jamaicans and in particular Bolt’s coach Glen Mills who arrived in Paris late last evening, to celebrate as not only did Bolt win the 100 but his ‘other’ athletes Daniel Bailey of Antigua and Yohan Blake (JAM) came in second and third with a new national record 9.91 and a new personal best 9.93 respectively.
All three men train together under Coach Mills in Kingston.
“It was all fun for me,” said Bolt about his training partner’s running beside him. “Actually, we had asked the organisers for the three of us to be together and we ran next to each other. And those guys PR'ed so it’s all good.”
Most impressive was Blake’s performance which stands as the fastest ever for a 19-year-old. Blake who had won a surprise bronze medal aged 16 at the 2006 World Junior Championships had been tipped for gold when the Junior World Champs were staged in Bydgoszcz last year only to come a disappointing fourth behind compatriot Dexter Lee.
Blake has finally come off age and following his superb 9.96 in Rome last week he ran the fastest race of his life to finish ‘only’ 14 hundredths of a second behind Bolt.
“I have to thank coach Mills for all this,” said an ecstatic Blake after his Parisian performance. “Training with Bolt is motivating; he is always a laugh to be with. Trust me he does great things in training. He is lightning Bolt and anytime the rain falls he strikes!”
Laura Arcoleo for the IAAF