Mon, August 25, 2008
BEIJING, Aug. 16 (Xinhua) -- The Earth held its breath as Usain Bolt was squatting on the blocks, before torrential yells stunned the 91,000-spectator Bird's Nest.
Piercing the windless air from the start to the finish, "lightning" Bolt became the world's fastest man, clocking an unprecedented 9.69 seconds, a new world record for men's 100-meter sprint, at the Beijing Olympic Games.
The yellow and green track jersey-clad Jamaican didn't even bother to mobilize his full strength in final strides towards the tape, showily slamming his right palm on the chest.
With a lackluster reaction time of 0.165 second, or the second slowest among all the finalists, his unfurling of the 1.96m-figure was perfect, the acceleration was superb, and the dash was unbeatable.
The brief praying of the devout Christian as he usually does before any important dashes obviously paid off.
Bathing the deafening voice in the stadium, the yellow lightning unleashed his turbo gear well beyond the 100m combat. The engine was powerful enough to reach its highest speed for 120 meters, or even 150 meters.
Nobody came closer to the leader. Not Asafa Powell, who has done the world's most sub-9.80s runs (five times). Not Tyson Gay, the world champion who did not get the chance to line up with Bolt after a disqualifying semifinal run.
After wearing the Jamaican national flag to tour the Olympic venue, after indulging himself in kissing the pair of golden track shoes, Bolt said, "I came here to prove I'm the best. I could even be 9.60."
Bolt's teammate and arch rival Asafa Powell, who tonight replayed his fate of the fifth place four years ago at the Athens Olympic Games, said, "Usain is the greatest of the best, definitely untouchable. He's explosive. He's spectacular."
Since the second-round heats of the men's 100m sprint, the gifted runner has led all the way into the finals, the fastest of its kind in all Olympic Games with six out of eight finalists blistering sub-10 seconds into the finals.
Rapidly rising from nowhere to the top athlete in quite a short period, Bolt, long trained in 200m, found a lot of fun in competing for the 100m dash. He, a rookie to the Olympics, got his coach's nod for running the double just before the Beijing Games.
With the joining in of Bolt, who in June sliced Powell's world record by two hundredths of a second to 9.72 seconds, the 100m summit was enthusiastically expected.
In weeks leading up to the Olympics, the fastest three in the world chased with each other to jokingly chop down the season's bests.
Among the trio, one concentrated more on the 200m but breezily shattered the 100m world record, one was the second-time world record holder but failed to get even one major event title, one was triple world champions but had never created a legally admitted world record.
The showdown was more or less eclipsed by disqualification of world champion Gay for the finals. The 26-year-old American made himself a hot candidate for the Olympic gold by clocking a wind-aided 9.68 seconds, the fastest under any conditions, one and half months ago.
Powell also underperformed. He said, "I really want a medal, I was very shocked I didn't get one. My legs were dead."
Bolt eventually changed the estimated trio grandeur into a solo.
A few Bolt's admirers, under the Olympic flame in Beijing's night sky, were so excited to mimic Bolt's celebrative dashing on the same track he created the world record.
This is only a start of the Jamaican's legend. He will line up on the track again one day before his 22nd birthday for the second gold in the men's 200m. The double dash golds glory, the latest of which during the Olympics was reached by Carl Lewis of the United States in 1984 in Los Angeles.
What will be his next world record? A new 100m one after the Olympics? Or don't wait too long until the Olympic men's 200m race? Bolt is the best candidate on the planet to topple the seemingly unbeatable half-lap record in 19.32 seconds, created by U.S. superman Michael Johnson 12 years ago in Atlanta.
As he enjoys running on Olympic tracks and chewing his favorite nuggets, Bolt is continuing chasing fun.
