Lightning Bolt lights up Bird’s Nest
Print Edition
WHEN time came for Usain Bolt to celebrate a record 10th world championship title, a clumsy cameraman got a little too close for comfort.
A man riding a two-wheel vehicle and holding a video camera upended Bolt in the excitement of the celebrations of his 200-meter victory last night, losing control after hitting a metal rail on the side of the track and barging into Bolt from behind.
Bolt tumbled to the ground, flipped over to get back on his feet and then briefly held his left leg. He then walked back to the cameraman to make sure he was OK, too.
Plenty of excitement after yet another exciting race on the track at Beijing’s Bird’s Nest.
Bolt held on to beat Justin Gatlin in a tight race down the finishing straight. Looking left and failing to see any red from Gatlin’s jersey, Bolt lifted both arms and punched his thumbs into his chest to show once again he is the greatest sprinter of all time.
“There was no doubt,” Bolt said after winning his fourth 200 world title in a row to add to two Olympic titles. “I told you guys that I would do it.”
With a time of 19.55 seconds, Bolt set the best time of the season. And despite slowing down, he still beat Gatlin by .19 — against the .01-second edge Bolt had in Sunday’s 100 final.
He capped it with his trademark “Lightning Bolt” pose. After two years of doubt and worries that age had started to affect the bearded champion at 29, he again displayed the wide grin of a teenager.
Bolt is now 2-0 in Beijing against Gatlin, who had been unbeaten in two seasons, with only the 4x100 relay to come.
Once he sat down to savor his victory on a trackside chair, Gatlin came over to congratulate Bolt and the two rivals shook hands and chatted.
Behind Gatlin, Anaso Jobodwana won bronze with a South African record of 19.87.
In the absence of gold from Gatlin, triple jumper Christian Taylor and Allyson Felix made up for it for the US, both with superlative performances.
Taylor produced the second-best triple jump of all time with a leap of 18.21 meters on his final attempt to pad his lead over Pablo Pichardo of Cuba.
The 2012 Olympic gold medalist and 2011 world champion has been in a duel all season with Pichardo, with both clearing the 18-meter mark in the last two months.
In the end, Taylor narrowly missed the 18.29 world record which Jonathan Edwards set at the world championships in Gothenburg in 1995. Pichardo took silver at 17.73.
In the race preceding the men’s 200, Felix won her first gold medal in the 400 meters and ever so briefly matched Bolt’s record of nine golds in the world championships. A few minutes later, Bolt pulled away again with his 10th.
In the day’s other final, the women’s hammer contest went to form with world record holder Anita Wlodarczyk of Poland winning with a mighty heave of 80.85 meters, with China’s Zhang Wenxiu claiming silver with a 76.33-meter throw.
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