http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126096701015693553.html
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Bernanke Named Time's Person of the Year
DAVID WESSEL
Time magazine named Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, as its person of the year.
"The main reason … is that he is the most important player guiding the world's most important economy. His creative leadership helped ensure that 2009 was a period of weak recovery rather than catastrophic depression, and he still wields unrivaled power over our money, our jobs, our savings and our national future. The decisions he has made, and those he has yet to make, will shape the path of our prosperity, the direction of our politics and our relationship to the world," the weekly said in a story posted on its Web site.
Mr. Bernanke was chosen over runners-up Gen. Stanley McChrystal, "the Chinese worker," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and runner Usain Bolt.
Write to David Wessel at capital@wsj.com
Showing posts with label Usain Bolt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Usain Bolt. Show all posts
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Bolt scorches 100 field in world-record 9.58
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/olympics/2009-08-16-track-worlds-day-2_N.htm
Bolt scorches 100 field in world-record 9.58 seconds
8-16-9
BERLIN (AP) — Olympic champion Usain Bolt set a 100-meter world record in the track and field world championships Sunday night, outrunning Tyson Gay and the rest of the field in a blistering 9.58 seconds in the final.
Bolt shaved 0.11 seconds off the record he set at the Beijing Olympics, beating defending champion Gay, who set a U.S. record of 9.71 seconds.
"I made sure if I ran a good perfect race, there was no worries," Bolt said.
Gay took the silver medal just ahead of Jamaica's Asafa Powell, who won bronze in the fastest 100 ever with a time of 9.84
"I did my best," said Gay, a three-time world champ. "I did good. It just wasn't good enough."
The race had been the most anticipated event of the world championships and lived up to its billing. Bolt won the Olympic gold in Beijing last year with a world record performance of 9.69.
Bolt scorches 100 field in world-record 9.58 seconds
8-16-9
BERLIN (AP) — Olympic champion Usain Bolt set a 100-meter world record in the track and field world championships Sunday night, outrunning Tyson Gay and the rest of the field in a blistering 9.58 seconds in the final.
Bolt shaved 0.11 seconds off the record he set at the Beijing Olympics, beating defending champion Gay, who set a U.S. record of 9.71 seconds.
"I made sure if I ran a good perfect race, there was no worries," Bolt said.
Gay took the silver medal just ahead of Jamaica's Asafa Powell, who won bronze in the fastest 100 ever with a time of 9.84
"I did my best," said Gay, a three-time world champ. "I did good. It just wasn't good enough."
The race had been the most anticipated event of the world championships and lived up to its billing. Bolt won the Olympic gold in Beijing last year with a world record performance of 9.69.
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Bolt could have run 9.52 in Olympics, coach says
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/feedarticle/7756119
Bolt could have run 9.52 in Olympics, coach says
Reuters, Wednesday August 27 2008
By Sam Cage
ZURICH, Aug 27 (Reuters) - Triple Olympic gold medallist and world record holder Usain Bolt could have run the 100 metres in 9.52 seconds if he had not slowed to celebrate, his coach said on Wednesday.
Glen Mills said Bolt, who electrified Beijing with his sprint victories, was at the start of his 100 career and would peak only in about two years' time.
"If he had continued, the slowest he would have run would have been 9.52," Mills told reporters ahead of Friday's Weltklasse athletics meeting in Zurich, where Bolt is due to run the 100.
"This is his first year of running the 100 metres," Mills said. "In two more years he should be peaking at this distance and by then I am certain he will be down to there."
Bolt set a world record of 9.69 seconds in the 100, and was so far ahead of the field that he slowed before the end to celebrate.
Bolt then broke Michael Johnson's 12-year-old mark in the 200 and added a third gold by contributing to a world record for Jamaica in the 4x100 relay.
On Friday, Bolt will face the two men who won medals behind him in the Beijing 100, Richard Thompson of Trinidad & Tobago and American Walter Dix.
Other Beijing winners on show in Zurich include women's pole vault champion Yelena Isinbayeva and Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia, who won the men's 5,000 and 10,000 metres.
"I've had some sleep since I've been here so I'm not tired. I'm trying to get my blood pumping again," Bolt said.
He declined to speculate on what time he might run on Friday.
"I don't think you can really set another goal after doing that at the Olympics," said Bolt, who turned 22 the day after his 200 Beijing win. "I'm just trying to get to the end of the season, injury free, and go home and enjoy myself."
(Editing by Clare Fallon)
Bolt could have run 9.52 in Olympics, coach says
Reuters, Wednesday August 27 2008
By Sam Cage
ZURICH, Aug 27 (Reuters) - Triple Olympic gold medallist and world record holder Usain Bolt could have run the 100 metres in 9.52 seconds if he had not slowed to celebrate, his coach said on Wednesday.
Glen Mills said Bolt, who electrified Beijing with his sprint victories, was at the start of his 100 career and would peak only in about two years' time.
"If he had continued, the slowest he would have run would have been 9.52," Mills told reporters ahead of Friday's Weltklasse athletics meeting in Zurich, where Bolt is due to run the 100.
"This is his first year of running the 100 metres," Mills said. "In two more years he should be peaking at this distance and by then I am certain he will be down to there."
Bolt set a world record of 9.69 seconds in the 100, and was so far ahead of the field that he slowed before the end to celebrate.
Bolt then broke Michael Johnson's 12-year-old mark in the 200 and added a third gold by contributing to a world record for Jamaica in the 4x100 relay.
On Friday, Bolt will face the two men who won medals behind him in the Beijing 100, Richard Thompson of Trinidad & Tobago and American Walter Dix.
Other Beijing winners on show in Zurich include women's pole vault champion Yelena Isinbayeva and Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia, who won the men's 5,000 and 10,000 metres.
"I've had some sleep since I've been here so I'm not tired. I'm trying to get my blood pumping again," Bolt said.
He declined to speculate on what time he might run on Friday.
"I don't think you can really set another goal after doing that at the Olympics," said Bolt, who turned 22 the day after his 200 Beijing win. "I'm just trying to get to the end of the season, injury free, and go home and enjoy myself."
(Editing by Clare Fallon)
Friday, August 29, 2008
Inside the Rings
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/25/sports/olympics/25clarey.html
August 25, 2008
Inside the Rings
China Fulfills Its Wish for Olympic Domination
By CHRISTOPHER CLAREY
BEIJING — In a country of numerologists, it was surely not lost on the Chinese that the last medal they won at their undeniably successful Olympics was also their 100th.
It came late Sunday afternoon, shortly before the Closing Ceremony, from boxer Zhang Zhilei in the super heavyweight division, and the only thing that did not seem entirely appropriate as Zhang collected his prize was that he had just finished second.
Gold, not silver, was the color that defined these Games for the Chinese. They finished with 51 gold medals, the highest figure for any nation at an Olympics in 20 years, and they won them across a wider range of sports than any team in Beijing.
“Here the message is clear; you’ve got to win,” said China’s fencing coach Christian Bauer, a Frenchman, in an interview last week with the French newspaper L’Equipe. “When you’ve got a gold medal here, you’re somebody. When you have a silver, you’re not.”
The individual most defined by gold, of course, was Michael Phelps, whose eight gold medals included dramatic, too-close-to-call finishes in the 100-meter butterfly and the 4x100 freestyle relay. It will take an unimaginable effort to trump Phelps. Who will have the ways and means to even compete in nine medal events at a future Olympics, much less win nine?
Usain Bolt, the Jamaican sprinter, certainly did all within his preternatural power to match Phelps’s global impact: winning the 100 and the 200 and the 4x100 relay all in world-record times and giving his ailing sport its latest shot of adrenaline.
One can only hope that there is no dark epilogue to either Bolt’s or Phelps’s phenomenal success stories. This is an era when too many larger-than-life sports figures have turned out to be frauds, including Marion Jones, who has now been stripped of the five track and field medals she won in Sydney at the 2000 Games
“I know, for me, I’m clean,” Phelps said. “I purposely wanted to do more tests to prove it. People can say what they want, but the facts are the facts.”
The only prominent athlete to test positive during these Games was Lyudmila Blonska of Ukraine, who was stripped of her silver medal in the heptathlon and removed from the women’s long jump final. But the Games’ competitive landscape was also altered before the Olympics began when track’s governing body, the International Association of Athletics Federations, suspended seven Russian athletes for tampering with their doping samples, including Yelena Soboleva, the overwhelming favorite to win the women’s 1,500 in Beijing.
With Soboleva absent, the Kenyan women won their first Olympic gold medals on the track, taking the 800 and 1,500.
The Russian Olympic team showed signs of decline, dropping to third in the overall medal standings behind the United States, which finished with 110, and China with its conveniently round 100.
The Russians won 36 gold medals and 88 over all in 2000; they won 27 golds and 92 over all in Athens. This time the final tallies were 23 and 72.
It will be intriguing to see whether Russia, with its increased national wealth and intention to upgrade its sports facilities, will be able to reverse the downward trend in time for London 2012.
The Chinese, however, are clearly in the ascendancy. They continue to dominate in diving, weightlifting, badminton and table tennis. But they also won their first Olympic gold medals here in archery, rowing, boxing, sailing and the gymnastics discipline of trampoline. They won their first medals in beach volleyball, synchronized swimming, rhythmic gymnastics and field hockey.
Remarkably, they won the gold medal count despite failing to win any golds in traditional team sports or in track and field, which awards more medals than any other sport. They also failed to win a medal in basketball, the sport that clearly generates the most passion in China, as was evident to anyone who had the earsplitting experience of watching the national teams’ games.
In track and field, the Chinese won just two bronzes and lost their biggest status symbol, Liu Xiang, to an Achilles’ tendon injury before he could even clear the first hurdle. But Chinese athletes were so successful that even the disappointment of Liu could not spoil this extraordinary national celebration.
China’s rise meant less gold for the rest of the world, with 52 nations winning gold medals here compared with 56 in Athens in 2004. But the overall spread was more balanced, with 87 nations winning at least one medal here, including Olympic minnows like Togo and Mauritius, compared with 74 in Athens.
With impeccable timing with London looming, the British were the biggest mover, climbing from 10th in the medals standings last time to fourth by any measure this time. Their 19 gold medals and 47 overall medals gave them their best overall performance at an Olympics in a century.
Rebecca Adlington, their 19-year-old surprise double gold medalist in swimming, and Chris Hoy, their triple gold medalist in track cycling, will surely not lack for attention over the next four years.
Nor, of course, will Phelps or Bolt, both of whom intend to compete in London. But they, like all future Olympians who try to match their achievements, now have an exceedingly difficult act to follow.
August 25, 2008
Inside the Rings
China Fulfills Its Wish for Olympic Domination
By CHRISTOPHER CLAREY
BEIJING — In a country of numerologists, it was surely not lost on the Chinese that the last medal they won at their undeniably successful Olympics was also their 100th.
It came late Sunday afternoon, shortly before the Closing Ceremony, from boxer Zhang Zhilei in the super heavyweight division, and the only thing that did not seem entirely appropriate as Zhang collected his prize was that he had just finished second.
Gold, not silver, was the color that defined these Games for the Chinese. They finished with 51 gold medals, the highest figure for any nation at an Olympics in 20 years, and they won them across a wider range of sports than any team in Beijing.
“Here the message is clear; you’ve got to win,” said China’s fencing coach Christian Bauer, a Frenchman, in an interview last week with the French newspaper L’Equipe. “When you’ve got a gold medal here, you’re somebody. When you have a silver, you’re not.”
The individual most defined by gold, of course, was Michael Phelps, whose eight gold medals included dramatic, too-close-to-call finishes in the 100-meter butterfly and the 4x100 freestyle relay. It will take an unimaginable effort to trump Phelps. Who will have the ways and means to even compete in nine medal events at a future Olympics, much less win nine?
Usain Bolt, the Jamaican sprinter, certainly did all within his preternatural power to match Phelps’s global impact: winning the 100 and the 200 and the 4x100 relay all in world-record times and giving his ailing sport its latest shot of adrenaline.
One can only hope that there is no dark epilogue to either Bolt’s or Phelps’s phenomenal success stories. This is an era when too many larger-than-life sports figures have turned out to be frauds, including Marion Jones, who has now been stripped of the five track and field medals she won in Sydney at the 2000 Games
“I know, for me, I’m clean,” Phelps said. “I purposely wanted to do more tests to prove it. People can say what they want, but the facts are the facts.”
The only prominent athlete to test positive during these Games was Lyudmila Blonska of Ukraine, who was stripped of her silver medal in the heptathlon and removed from the women’s long jump final. But the Games’ competitive landscape was also altered before the Olympics began when track’s governing body, the International Association of Athletics Federations, suspended seven Russian athletes for tampering with their doping samples, including Yelena Soboleva, the overwhelming favorite to win the women’s 1,500 in Beijing.
With Soboleva absent, the Kenyan women won their first Olympic gold medals on the track, taking the 800 and 1,500.
The Russian Olympic team showed signs of decline, dropping to third in the overall medal standings behind the United States, which finished with 110, and China with its conveniently round 100.
The Russians won 36 gold medals and 88 over all in 2000; they won 27 golds and 92 over all in Athens. This time the final tallies were 23 and 72.
It will be intriguing to see whether Russia, with its increased national wealth and intention to upgrade its sports facilities, will be able to reverse the downward trend in time for London 2012.
The Chinese, however, are clearly in the ascendancy. They continue to dominate in diving, weightlifting, badminton and table tennis. But they also won their first Olympic gold medals here in archery, rowing, boxing, sailing and the gymnastics discipline of trampoline. They won their first medals in beach volleyball, synchronized swimming, rhythmic gymnastics and field hockey.
Remarkably, they won the gold medal count despite failing to win any golds in traditional team sports or in track and field, which awards more medals than any other sport. They also failed to win a medal in basketball, the sport that clearly generates the most passion in China, as was evident to anyone who had the earsplitting experience of watching the national teams’ games.
In track and field, the Chinese won just two bronzes and lost their biggest status symbol, Liu Xiang, to an Achilles’ tendon injury before he could even clear the first hurdle. But Chinese athletes were so successful that even the disappointment of Liu could not spoil this extraordinary national celebration.
China’s rise meant less gold for the rest of the world, with 52 nations winning gold medals here compared with 56 in Athens in 2004. But the overall spread was more balanced, with 87 nations winning at least one medal here, including Olympic minnows like Togo and Mauritius, compared with 74 in Athens.
With impeccable timing with London looming, the British were the biggest mover, climbing from 10th in the medals standings last time to fourth by any measure this time. Their 19 gold medals and 47 overall medals gave them their best overall performance at an Olympics in a century.
Rebecca Adlington, their 19-year-old surprise double gold medalist in swimming, and Chris Hoy, their triple gold medalist in track cycling, will surely not lack for attention over the next four years.
Nor, of course, will Phelps or Bolt, both of whom intend to compete in London. But they, like all future Olympians who try to match their achievements, now have an exceedingly difficult act to follow.
First to break records in 100, 200 at same Games
http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/summer08/trackandfield/news/story?id=3544110
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Bolt is first to break records in 100, 200 at same Games
Associated Press
BEIJING -- Usain Bolt kept driving for the finish line, knowing the race was won but there was something even bigger out there.
Not just another world record, but history itself. Not just an unheard-of blowout, but the chance to be called the greatest sprinter ever.
Bolt may have done just that Wednesday night, on his sport's biggest stage.
Usain Bolt ran Wednesday's 200 meter final in 19.30 seconds, breaking Michael Johnson's 12-year-old record of 19.32.
The Jamaican wunderkind hurtled to his second world record and his second Olympic gold medal, finishing the 200-meter race in 19.30 seconds to break Michael Johnson's 12-year-old mark. In doing so he became the first man ever to break the world record in both the 100 and 200 at the same Olympics and the first since Carl Lewis in 1984 to win the sprint double.
That he did it was one thing -- how he did it was even more memorable. He beat Churandy Martina by 0.52 second -- about four body lengths -- the largest margin of victory in an Olympic 200 since the first race in 1900. Martina ended up being disqualified later, however, for running out of his lane.
The last man to hold both world records simultaneously was none other than Donald Quarrie, the 1970s Jamaican star whom Bolt said he always wanted to pattern his running after.
Now Quarrie and everyone else -- Lewis, Jesse Owens, any of the other six men to complete an Olympic 100-200 double -- takes a back seat. Nobody other than Johnson had ever run a 200 in under 19.6 and nobody had broken 9.7 in the 100 before Beijing.
Now Bolt has done both.
He had this one won about halfway through, but unlike his record-setting performance in the 100 four nights before, there was no hot-dogging, no celebrating until he crossed the line. He went hard all the way, looking at the clock down the stretch, leaning at the line, knowing that Johnson's venerable mark was within reach.
When he saw the number come up -- a number that never has before -- he raised his arms, then fell flat to his back, arms and legs outstretched, and basked in the roar of the Bird's Nest crowd.
Wallace Spearmon of the United States finished third but also was disqualified for leaving his lane. He was celebrating along with Bolt -- even picking up his friend -- carrying the American flag around the track for several minutes after the race and was shocked when an official told him of the DQ.
The U.S. team filed a protest after the race, saying Martina had run out of his lane. The protest was accepted, and that meant Shawn Crawford of the U.S., the defending Olympic champion, ended up with the silver medal. Another American, Walter Dix, ended up with the bronze medal despite being the fifth man across the finish line.
Bolt is simply a different kind of runner -- coiled power in his 6-foot-5 frame, supposedly too big for success in the 100, but certainly built to run the 200.
His move out of the starting block isn't nearly as important in the longer race, which makes this more about raw speed. But a good start certainly doesn't hurt. He got one in this race, bursting out of the blocks from Lane 5, overcoming the lag about a quarter of the way through, then beating Martina to the line by four body lengths.
Bolt's 100 record is 9.69 seconds. He averaged 9.65 per 100 meters in the longer sprint, running into a very slight headwind.
"Incredible," Johnson, now the former record-holder, said after the race. "He got an incredible start. Guys of [6-foot-5] should not be able to start like that. It's that long, massive stride. He's eating up so much more track than others. He came in focused, knowing he would likely win the gold and he's got the record."
Bolt won the race on the eve of his 22nd birthday and a version of "Happy Birthday" played over the public-address system as he took off his gold shoes and wrapped the Jamaican flag around his shoulders like a scarf.
He did another hip-swiveling dance, then raised his hands and pointed toward the scoreboard. A little later, he posed near the scoreboard -- the traditional picture that all world record-setters take. Bolt now has three of them -- this, the 100 from Saturday and the picture he took in New York in May when he broke the 100 record the first time.
"You're back there giving it everything you've got -- it's brutal," said Kim Collins, the 2003 world champ who finished seventh. "He's doing it and making it look so simple. Michael Johnson did it, and it didn't looked that easy."
Bolt's victory made Jamaica 3-for-3 in the Olympic sprints, and the women's 200 Thursday will include three Jamaicans with gold-medal potential -- Veronica Campbell-Brown, Sherone Simpson and Kerron Stewart.
None of them, however, will surpass what Bolt has done at these games. And while Michael Phelps and his eight swimming golds may be The Story of these Olympics, Bolt's sheer dominance in the most basic tests of speed there are will not soon be surpassed -- unless he does it himself.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Bolt is first to break records in 100, 200 at same Games
Associated Press
BEIJING -- Usain Bolt kept driving for the finish line, knowing the race was won but there was something even bigger out there.
Not just another world record, but history itself. Not just an unheard-of blowout, but the chance to be called the greatest sprinter ever.
Bolt may have done just that Wednesday night, on his sport's biggest stage.
Usain Bolt ran Wednesday's 200 meter final in 19.30 seconds, breaking Michael Johnson's 12-year-old record of 19.32.
The Jamaican wunderkind hurtled to his second world record and his second Olympic gold medal, finishing the 200-meter race in 19.30 seconds to break Michael Johnson's 12-year-old mark. In doing so he became the first man ever to break the world record in both the 100 and 200 at the same Olympics and the first since Carl Lewis in 1984 to win the sprint double.
That he did it was one thing -- how he did it was even more memorable. He beat Churandy Martina by 0.52 second -- about four body lengths -- the largest margin of victory in an Olympic 200 since the first race in 1900. Martina ended up being disqualified later, however, for running out of his lane.
The last man to hold both world records simultaneously was none other than Donald Quarrie, the 1970s Jamaican star whom Bolt said he always wanted to pattern his running after.
Now Quarrie and everyone else -- Lewis, Jesse Owens, any of the other six men to complete an Olympic 100-200 double -- takes a back seat. Nobody other than Johnson had ever run a 200 in under 19.6 and nobody had broken 9.7 in the 100 before Beijing.
Now Bolt has done both.
He had this one won about halfway through, but unlike his record-setting performance in the 100 four nights before, there was no hot-dogging, no celebrating until he crossed the line. He went hard all the way, looking at the clock down the stretch, leaning at the line, knowing that Johnson's venerable mark was within reach.
When he saw the number come up -- a number that never has before -- he raised his arms, then fell flat to his back, arms and legs outstretched, and basked in the roar of the Bird's Nest crowd.
Wallace Spearmon of the United States finished third but also was disqualified for leaving his lane. He was celebrating along with Bolt -- even picking up his friend -- carrying the American flag around the track for several minutes after the race and was shocked when an official told him of the DQ.
The U.S. team filed a protest after the race, saying Martina had run out of his lane. The protest was accepted, and that meant Shawn Crawford of the U.S., the defending Olympic champion, ended up with the silver medal. Another American, Walter Dix, ended up with the bronze medal despite being the fifth man across the finish line.
Bolt is simply a different kind of runner -- coiled power in his 6-foot-5 frame, supposedly too big for success in the 100, but certainly built to run the 200.
His move out of the starting block isn't nearly as important in the longer race, which makes this more about raw speed. But a good start certainly doesn't hurt. He got one in this race, bursting out of the blocks from Lane 5, overcoming the lag about a quarter of the way through, then beating Martina to the line by four body lengths.
Bolt's 100 record is 9.69 seconds. He averaged 9.65 per 100 meters in the longer sprint, running into a very slight headwind.
"Incredible," Johnson, now the former record-holder, said after the race. "He got an incredible start. Guys of [6-foot-5] should not be able to start like that. It's that long, massive stride. He's eating up so much more track than others. He came in focused, knowing he would likely win the gold and he's got the record."
Bolt won the race on the eve of his 22nd birthday and a version of "Happy Birthday" played over the public-address system as he took off his gold shoes and wrapped the Jamaican flag around his shoulders like a scarf.
He did another hip-swiveling dance, then raised his hands and pointed toward the scoreboard. A little later, he posed near the scoreboard -- the traditional picture that all world record-setters take. Bolt now has three of them -- this, the 100 from Saturday and the picture he took in New York in May when he broke the 100 record the first time.
"You're back there giving it everything you've got -- it's brutal," said Kim Collins, the 2003 world champ who finished seventh. "He's doing it and making it look so simple. Michael Johnson did it, and it didn't looked that easy."
Bolt's victory made Jamaica 3-for-3 in the Olympic sprints, and the women's 200 Thursday will include three Jamaicans with gold-medal potential -- Veronica Campbell-Brown, Sherone Simpson and Kerron Stewart.
None of them, however, will surpass what Bolt has done at these games. And while Michael Phelps and his eight swimming golds may be The Story of these Olympics, Bolt's sheer dominance in the most basic tests of speed there are will not soon be surpassed -- unless he does it himself.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
So fast! Bolt smashes own world record to win 100
http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/beijing/track_field/news?slug=ap-ath-mens100
So fast! Bolt smashes own world record to win 100
8-16-2008
BEIJING (AP)—Usain Bolt of Jamaica easily broke his own world record in the 100 meters to win the Olympic gold medal Saturday night, slowing up to celebrate and still finishing in 9.69 seconds.
Bolt stretched his arms out wide and put his palms out, then slapped his chest just before crossing the line. He came in well below his old mark of 9.72 seconds, set May 31 in New York—less than a year after Bolt took up the dash.
What had been billed as a showdown was not close at all. Richard Thompson of Trinidad took the silver medal in 9.89, and Walter Dix of the United States was third in 9.91.
The 21-year-old Bolt’s performance left no doubt whatsoever about who deserves the title of “World’s Fastest Man.”
Former world record-holder Asafa Powell of Jamaica was fifth, while reigning world champion Tyson Gay of the United States failed to qualify for the final.
Bolt’s specialty has been the 200 meters, which he will be a heavy favorite to win next week in what would be first men’s Olympic sprint double since Carl Lewis in 1988. But he persuaded his coach to let him try the dash—and what quick progress Bolt has made.
So fast! Bolt smashes own world record to win 100
8-16-2008
BEIJING (AP)—Usain Bolt of Jamaica easily broke his own world record in the 100 meters to win the Olympic gold medal Saturday night, slowing up to celebrate and still finishing in 9.69 seconds.
Bolt stretched his arms out wide and put his palms out, then slapped his chest just before crossing the line. He came in well below his old mark of 9.72 seconds, set May 31 in New York—less than a year after Bolt took up the dash.
What had been billed as a showdown was not close at all. Richard Thompson of Trinidad took the silver medal in 9.89, and Walter Dix of the United States was third in 9.91.
The 21-year-old Bolt’s performance left no doubt whatsoever about who deserves the title of “World’s Fastest Man.”
Former world record-holder Asafa Powell of Jamaica was fifth, while reigning world champion Tyson Gay of the United States failed to qualify for the final.
Bolt’s specialty has been the 200 meters, which he will be a heavy favorite to win next week in what would be first men’s Olympic sprint double since Carl Lewis in 1988. But he persuaded his coach to let him try the dash—and what quick progress Bolt has made.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
