ATHLETICS: ONE WAY of telling just how good Usain Bolt looked here on Saturday night is to pretend you missed it, and ask around what other people thought.
The universal response will be "the most amazing thing ever" followed by "you had to be there" - and they can't all be wrong.
They were, obviously, talking about the 9.69 seconds it took Bolt to win the Olympic 100-metre title for Jamaica, improving his own world record of 9.72 in the process. They could also have been talking about his celebratory lap, the total frenzy he created in the mixed zone, or his almost comical casualness at the medal winners' press conference.
One US journalist on the bus back out to the Bird's Nest yesterday told me Bolt looked so laid back it would take him two hours to watch 60 Minutes.
Agreed, on all counts. This was the most amazing thing ever, at least in track and field, but we could all have revised that summing up by Wednesday when Bolt completes what is sure to be a 100-200 metres double, the day before his 22nd birthday.
If he decides to race through the finish line in that one, Michael Johnson's world-record 19.32 seconds will be under threat. The 200 metres, after all, is Bolt's speciality, his best of 19.67 the fifth-fastest time in history.
He's back in the Bird's Nest this morning to begin that quest, and the second round is scheduled for this evening. He says he's not chasing world records here, only gold medals, but as we now know, Bolt is also quite the show-man, and 19.32 may prove hard to resist.
What is now certain is that Bolt is the undisputed fastest man on earth. It was only the fifth time in Olympic history the men's 100-metre final produced a world record, and the winning margin of one-fifth of a second - Richard Thompson of Trinidad taking silver in 9.89 - was easily the greatest.
The only question on the night was how much faster Bolt would have run, had he not so visibly eased up 20 metres before the line, lowered his arms and looked behind, like a taunting uncle might when racing his young nieces and nephews.
This was one of the first questions put to Bolt when he showed up for the press conference over two hours later, munching on an energy bar and completely unfazed by the room packed wall to wall with reporters.
"I have not seen the replays yet so I can't really say," he replied. "People have been saying I could have run 9.60 but I haven't seen the replays yet so I couldn't really comment on that."
Truth is Bolt didn't look at the clock until several minutes after finishing. So was he at all surprised he broke the world record?
"I wasn't worried about the world record. I didn't even know I'd got the world record until after I had finished my victory lap. One aim was to come here and be Olympic champion and I did just that, and I am happy about that.
"I'm not really worried about world records in the 200 metres, either. My aim is just to win. There's a lot more time to think about that."
Johnson ran the second half of his 200-metre world record in 9.2 seconds, and when Bolt's six-foot-five-inch frame and enormous stride hits full flight, that sort of speed could feel comfortable.
Chances are, however, he will reserve his true world record attempts for the lucrative Grand Prix circuit, where he can now name his own price.
He's in good hands too; his agent is the Donegal native Ricky Simms, who is director of the late Kim McDonald's agency in London and two years ago told me Bolt was going to be the next superstar of the track.
Right there, Ricky.
Bolt is unlikely to be spoilt by the fortune and fame. He admits he's still a little lazy, and even with the pressure of Saturday's final, he stuck to his usual routine of sleeping in and skipping breakfast.
"I never have breakfast," he said, generating significant laughter. "I woke up at, like, 11 o'clock, sat around and watched some TV, had lunch, some nuggets, then I pretty much went back to my room, slept again, then went back and got some more nuggets. Then I came to the track."
It helps that Bolt comes from an extremely modest background, like most of Jamaica's 2.8 million residents.
Raised in the village of Sherwood Content near the island's northern shore, the son of a general-store owner and a dressmaker, he ran his first race at age 10, three years before he was given his first pair of spikes.
His parent still live in the same small, pink bungalow, a pile of concrete blocks off to the side the only evidence of Bolt's efforts to repay them for their devotion by building an extension.
It's said Bolt came from relative obscurity to world-class sprinter, which he did - at age 15. After winning the Jamaican high-school titles over 200 and 400 metres, he became the youngest ever world junior champion, winning the 200-metre title a month shy of his 16th birthday. Two years later, age 17, he lowered the world junior record to 19.93.
In all reality, he's merely fulfilling his huge potential, while maintaining the great Caribbean sprint tradition.
While Walter Dix of the US took bronze in 9.91, six of Saturday's eight finalists were Caribbean; Darvis Patton of the US was eighth in 10.03.
It was sad to see the third American Tyson Gay go out in the semi-final, clearly hampered by the time lost through injury, while Bolt's other main challenger, Asafa Powell, merely underlined his reputation as a championship choker as he faded to fifth in 9.95.
What ultimately made Saturday so special was the sense people could actually believe what they were seeing.
Twenty years after Ben Johnson turned the Olympic 100 metres into tragedy, Bolt may well have turned it back into the spectacle it was intended to be - the most amazing thing ever.
1912 -Donald Lippincott (USA)10.6
1921 -Charles Paddock (USA)10.4
1930 -Percy Williams (Can)10.3
1936 -Jesse Owens (USA)10.2
1956 -Willie Williams (USA)10.1
1960 -Armin Hary (W Ger)10.0
1968 -Jim Hines (USA)9.95
1983 - Calvin Smith (USA)9.93
1988 -Carl Lewis (USA)9.92
1991 - Leroy Burrell (USA)9.90
1991 - Carl Lewis (USA)9.86
1994 - Leroy Burrell (USA)9.85
1996 -Donovan Bailey (Can)9.84
1999 -Maurice Greene (USA)9.79
2005 -Asafa Powell (Jam)9.77
2007 -Asafa Powell (Jam)9.74
2008 - Usain Bolt (Jam)9.72
2008 - Usain Bolt (Jam)9.69
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