Six-time Olympic champion Usain Bolt has already started his preparations for next year’s Rio Olympics and has sent a warning to his competitors — he thinks he is capable of breaking 19 seconds in the 200m.
Bolt’s record of 19.19 seconds for the 200m has stood since Aug. 20, 2009, four days after he set the 100m record of 9.58 seconds, both at the World Championships in Athletics in Berlin.
“I really want to run under 19 seconds,” Bolt said from his training base at the University of West Indies in Kingston as he began preparations for next year’s Rio Olympics. “It is one of my major goals.”
Photo: Reuters
“I think it is one of the toughest ones, because it is going to be hard to find the right day and … the perfect race to get this [200m record],” he said.
“It will not be an easy task, but I personally feel I can do it and my coach [Glen Mills] thinks I can do it, so it is just about the work and finding the perfect time to do it,” he added.
Bolt is seeking to become the first man to win three successive Olympic titles in the sprint events and the 4x100m relay in Rio.
The Jamaican shrugged off a nagging pelvic injury this year to win three golds at the Beijing World Championships in August, which included ending American Justin Gatlin’s almost two-year unbeaten run over both the 100m and 200m.
Gatlin has already said he feels he is closing the gap on his Jamaican competitor, having only lost the 100m final in Beijing by 0.01 seconds. Bolt won the 200m more comfortably.
“It is one of the joys to go out there and to compete against the best, because when you go out there and beat the best, it shows that you are the greatest,” Bolt said in anticipation of facing Gatlin again.
“So, for me, I live to compete and I look forward to my teammate Yohan Blake coming back. He has been out for pretty much two seasons,” he added.
The Jamaican, whose initial day of training was thwarted by rain, sounded a warning to Gatlin, Blake and anyone else considering trying to stop him at next year’s Olympics.
“Justin Gatlin says he is coming, but ... I am much more focused,” Bolt said. “I am starting the season in a much better shape than I did the last one, so it is only forward from here.”
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but