Bolt drives rivals around bend

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS:WHETHER USAIN Bolt produces the ultimate climax to these World Championships today by helping Jamaica to another world record in the 4x100 metres relay – and thus claim a third world record in eight days – some sprint experts are already crediting him with breaking a land speed record of another sort. It seems there is still no limit to what the big Jamaican is capable of.

Biomechanical analysis of Thursday’s 200 metres final was distributed around the media centre yesterday morning, and yet again had us shaking our heads in disbelief. As if Bolt’s 19.19 seconds wasn’t impressive enough, the breakdown of that run provided further evidence that in sprinting terms he is simply in a world of his own.

Bolt ran the first 100 metres in 9.92 seconds, which of course means he ran that around a semi-circle. No wonder he’s driving his rivals around the bend. In 1988, it would have equalled the 100 metres world record that Carl Lewis ran in a straight line. Bolt then ran the second 100 metres in 9.27 seconds. You can take your pick as to which of those times is the most impressive, but the experts here are saying running 9.92 seconds around the bend was what ultimately secured Bolt the world record.

“The bend was unbelievable,” said Michael Johnson, the former world-record holder who is commentating for the BBC in Berlin. “No one has ever run a bend like this and probably never will.”

Consider this: Bolt also ran into a slight headwind of -.3 metres-per-second. That may not sound like much but the majority of world records are run with the benefit of a slight tailwind. Consider this: the 200 metres world record had stood for 17 years to Italy’s Pietro Mennea at 19.72, before Johnson broke it twice in 1996, running 19.32 in the Olympic final in Atlanta. That stood for another 12 years before Bolt ran 19.30 in Beijing.

And consider this: his margin of victory – 0.62 of a second – is greater than the sum total of winning margins of the five previous winners of the title.

And he didn’t consider himself 100 per cent fit? “I actually came here really tired,” he said at his post-race press conference. “The one thing really affected this summer was my 200 metre training, because I didn’t do much on the corner, which I wanted to. I’m not in the condition I was in last year. I just kept saying anything is possible. I saw the record in Beijing, and I thought anything is possible.

“It’s just a great feeling. I didn’t know I was going to break it that bad. I was just trying my heart out and I got it right so I’m just happy. I don’t put myself under pressure. When I go out there I know what to do so I just go out and execute pretty much. I keep telling people that my main aim is to become a legend. That’s the aim for me and that’s what I’m working on.”

Bolt was asked, too, if given every possible advantage, such as actually being fully fit, and also enjoying the maximum permitted tailwind of +2.0 metres-per-second would he be capable of running 18-something seconds?

“I don’t know,” Bolt said. “I guess, maybe. Anything is possible. I doubt people thought I would run 19.19. I didn’t think I would run 19.19. I don’t know what is the limit for 200 metres.”

Anyway he had a day off yesterday – well-timed given it happened to be his 23rd birthday. And did he intend celebrating it? “With a long sleep”, he suggested, adding that he was “really, really tired right now”.

No doubt he’ll muster up the energy to put on another show in the relay. In Beijing last summer Bolt ran the penultimate leg in setting the world record of 37.10, passing off to Asafa Powell, and given the way he ran the bend here on Thursday night, that’s the plan yet again: “I’m just hoping we get the baton around and win, so I can get three gold medals and go home smiling”.

Meanwhile, the sprint experts are left arguing among themselves as to what Bolt may potentially run over 400 metres, if or indeed when he is talked into running the longer distance even halfway seriously.

“Everybody knows that I’m not going to run the 400 metres unless my coach gives me a really good reason,” he said with a smile. “I’m just trying to stay as far away from that as possible.”

The only problem with breaking world records is that it may become addictive. Eventually that will be his reason to run the 400 metres, to break the world record of 43.19 which has stood to Johnson for 10 years.