Bolt, Isinbayeva stars of 2008

Source: Agencies  |   2008-12-27  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

USAIN Bolt let those long legs loose at the Bird's Nest, and he left Beijing with three Olympic gold medals, three world records and hundreds of millions of new fans around the world.

Virtually unknown at the start of the year, the Jamaican sprinter was the star of the track in 2008, first setting a world record in the 100 meters at the end of May and then lowering the mark to 9.69 seconds at the Olympics. A few days later, he set a 200 record of 19.30, taking two hundredths of a second off the mark set by Michael Johnson at the 1996 Atlanta Games.

To cap it off, the 1.96-meter Bolt helped Jamaica win gold in the 4x100 relay -- again in world-record time.

"I'm Lightning Bolt. I'm not Flash Gordon or anybody," Bolt said after the 200. "My name is Lightning Bolt."

Two of the greatest distance runners of all time also had stellar years, with Kenenisa Bekele winning both the 5,000 and 10,000 at the Olympics. In the longer race, the Ethiopian great beat 1996 and 2000 Olympic 10,000 champion Haile Gebrselassie.

But Gebrselassie's sixth-place finish in Beijing didn't stop him from breaking his own world record in the marathon, lowering that mark to 2:03:59 in Berlin, a three-time champion in the city, in September.

In women's competition, Yelena Isinbayeva was undefeated outdoors in 2008, defending her Olympic pole vault title in Beijing with one of her four world records this year -- three outside and one inside.

"I love to be alone at the top," Isinbayeva said after raising the outdoor world record to 5.05 meters in Beijing.

Tirunesh Dibaba emulated Bekele on the track, completing an Olympic long-distance double by winning both the 5,000 and 10,000, and Kenyan teenager Pamela Jelimo won the women's 800 in Beijing and collected the US$1 million Golden League jackpot by winning her event at all six participating meetings.

Radcliffe returns

Paula Radcliffe, the marathon world-record holder, had another disappointing Olympics, finishing only 23rd four years after dropping out of the 42.2-kilometer race at the 2004 Athens Games. But the season wasn't ruined for the British runner, who came back to competitive running in 2007 after giving birth to her daughter and won her third New York Marathon title this year.

"It does make it frustrating because you think, 'Why can I get it right all the time in New York and I can't get it right there?"' Radcliffe said of the Olympics. "But sometimes you have to take what life gives you."

Doping again had an effect in 2008, with seven Russian women getting busted only a week before the Beijing Games for tampering with their urine samples.

Marion Jones, who gave back her five medals from the Sydney Olympics after finally admitting to using performance-enhancing drugs, served six months in jail for lying about her steroid use. Four track-and-field athletes were disqualified for doping at the Beijing Games, including Ukraine's Lyudmila Blonska, who was stripped of her silver medal in the heptathlon.

But none of that overshadowed the towering Bolt, who totally eclipsed Jamaican teammate Asafa Powell in 2008. Although Powell had lowered his own 100 record to 9.74 in 2007, he again failed to shine at the big event, finishing fifth in the short sprint in Beijing.

"I have a motto that anything is possible," Bolt said after winning the IAAF's athlete of the year award in November.