Usain Bolt is to take the first long strides on his road to the Olympics today when he makes his track debut for the year with less than three months to go before the Rio de Janeiro event.
The Jamaican sprint king is planning a successful defense of his 100m, 200m and 4x100m crowns in Brazil, an unprecedented “triple-triple” in what he has said will be his final Olympic Games.
The 29-year-old superstar has not competed since winning three gold medals at the World Championships in Beijing in August last year and is hoping to use this weekend’s Cayman Invitational to gauge the state of his race fitness.
Bolt, the world record holder over 100m and 200m, is to run in the 100m today at the Truman Bodden Sports Complex.
“When I left Jamaica, everything was good,” Bolt told reporters at the complex on Thursday. “This is my first race, so you never know what to expect, because race fitness is different from training.”
Bolt said he believes he is ready to hit the ground running, adding that training partner Yohan Blake has been in blistering form this year.
“The way I feel, I should run a good time, because I train with Blake, who ran a good time [9.93 seconds] already this season,” Bolt said.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
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