Usain Bolt sauntered onto the track, stretched out his arms and waved his hands, signaling for more applause.
He knew how this night was going to go.
Bolt’s swan song in the Olympic 100m on Sunday night was a no-doubter — a pedestrian-by-his-standards 9.81-second sprint down the straightaway, but not so slow that he could not take time to point at his own chest with his thumb a step before he crossed the finish line.
Photo: AFP
“It was brilliant,” Bolt said. “I didn’t go so fast, but I’m so happy I won. I told you guys I was going to do it.”
He won his record-setting third straight title in track’s featured event and his seventh Olympic gold. He has already swept aside pretty much every sprinter who had any claim on being the greatest.
So, on a muggy night in Rio, Bolt took aim at Michael Phelps, shoving the swimmer and all his 23 medals to the background and made it official: The Bolt Games have begun.
Bolt beat the US’ Justin Gatlin, who was greeted by the fans with raucous boos, by .08 seconds. Andre de Grasse of Canada won the bronze.
Bolt has a chance for two more golds — in his favorite race, the 200m final on Thursday, and then in the 4x100m relay on Saturday night.
The 195.6cm sprinter/celebrity overcame his typically slow unfurling from the blocks — he was second-to-last after the break — then churned his legs to gradually build up speed. He caught Gatlin with about 40m left and the rest was a matter of how hard he wanted to run.
Gatlin pursued him gamely, the way he has for years. He finished with silver again and, while Bolt was celebrating with anyone he could find, Gatlin was parading the US flag around the track virtually alone.
The boos from the Brazilian crowd were the latest ugly chapter in Gatlin’s saga. He has been caught for doping twice.
“That’s the first time I’ve gone into a stadium and they’ve started to boo,” Bolt said. “It surprised me.”
A split-second after he crossed, Bolt raised an index finger, and then the real party began.
Bolt unlaced his now-famous gold spikes and took selfies with fans. He turned his yellow hat backward, kneeled down and gave the crowd what it really wanted — that famous, arching, “To the World” pose that he debuted eight years ago in Beijing.
Chants of “Bolt, Bolt, Bolt” rang out from the near-capacity stadium.
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