Jamaica’s Usain Bolt shattered his own 200m world record on Thursday to win gold at the world championships in a breathtaking 19.19 seconds and secure his place as the greatest sprinter ever seen.
One year exactly after he posted 19.30 seconds at the Beijing Olympics to beat Michael Johnson’s “untouchable” 19.32 from the Atlanta Games, he sliced another 0.11 seconds off just as he did in Sunday’s 100m when he ran 9.58.
Bolt, who turns 23 on Saturday, is now the world record holder and world and Olympic champion in both sprints — something no other athlete has achieved.
PHOTO: AFP
“I was trying, I was dying,” he said. “It wasn’t a good race I can say but it was a fast one.”
Jamaica’s gold rush continued in the women’s 400m hurdles when Olympic champion Melaine Walker ran the second-fastest time ever — 52.42 seconds — to take the island’s tally to five.
Ryan Brathwaite of Barbados won the 110m hurdles in a blanket finish with the first three divided by one hundredth of a second.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Croatia’s Blanka Vlasic went some way to making up for her Olympic disappointment when she retained the women’s high jump title with a leap of 2.04m, while Trey Hardee survived a grueling 12-hour second day to win the decathlon.
Bolt said he had been working on his start and the evidence was there for all to see as within half a dozen of his galloping strides he had run down Panama’s Alonso Edward, who went on to finish second in 19.81.
“Unbelievable — a ridiculous race. The bend is unbelievable,” said former record-holder Johnson while commentating for the BBC. “No one has ever run a bend like this and probably never will.”
Bolt romped down the home straight, the effort stitched across his face, and crossed the line pointing at the clock.
“I did well for myself and I’m on my way to becoming a legend,” he said, to universal agreement.
“We call him ‘Insane Bolt,’ said Wallace Spearmon of the US, who took third in 19.85.
However, even Bolt has to defer when it comes to the title of world’s greatest all-round athlete and Hardee fully deserves the title.
The American produced three successive season’s bests in the 110m hurdles (13.86), discus (48.08) and pole vault (5.20) then somehow found a 68m javelin throw, his best by almost 4m, for a hefty lead of 264 points going into the 1,500m.
He duly got round safely to finish with 8,790 points, well ahead of Cuba’s Leonel Suarez and Aleksandr Pogorelov of Russia.
In the 400m hurdles, Walker produced a storming last 100m to overtake American Lashinda Demus and post a time bettered only by the 52.34 of Russian Yuliya Pechonkina.
Brathwaite, 21, took the 110m honors by the thickness of his vest in 13.14.
Terrence Trammell had to settle for his third world silver to go with two from the Olympics as he finished ahead of compatriot David Payne after both clocked 13.15.
Bolt is not the only man with double vision either as Kenenisa Bekele and Yusuf Saad Kamel are on course to join him.
Bekele was the fastest qualifier for the 5,000m final while Kamel, who claimed the 1,500m on Wednesday night, was up early to win his 800m heat.
Sergey Kirdyapkin won his second 50km world title yesterday to give Russia a clean sweep of walking events at the world championships.
The 2005 world champ finished in a season-leading three hours, 38 minutes and 35 seconds over a course at the Brandenburg Gate.
Norway’s Trond Nymark took the silver and Spain’s Jesus Angel Garcia claimed bronze.
Russia won the men’s and women’s 20km walks earlier in the championships.
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