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TrackandField
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Updated: June 1, 12:29 PM ET
Jamaica's Bolt sets world record in 100 meters at Reebok
Associated Press
NEW YORK -- Like a bolt out of
nowhere, Usain Bolt is now the world's fastest man.
The Jamaican sprinter, who doesn't
even consider the 100 meters his best race, set the world record
Saturday night with a time of 9.72 seconds at the Reebok Grand Prix, .02
seconds faster than the old record held by his countryman, Asafa Powell.
Bolt was using the 100 for "speed
work" and to avoid having to run the more grueling 400, when,
suddenly, he ran the world's second-fastest time last month at 9.76.
Even then, he said he wasn't sure if he would give up the 400 meters for
the 100 for the Beijing Olympics.
Hard to imagine he has any choice now.
Unfurling his lanky frame -- listed at
6-foot-4, but probably more like 6-5 and, either way, considered too
tall for this kind of speed work -- he created a big-time gap between
himself and Tyson Gay at about the halfway point, then routed him to the
finish line.
Gay, the best sprinter in America,
finished in 9.85.
Within moments of crossing the finish
line, the 21-year-old from Kingston was hoisting the Jamaican flag and a
crowd with hundreds of Jamaican fans was going wild.
"Just coming here, knowing a lot
of Jamaicans were here giving me their support, it meant a lot,"
Bolt said. "I just wanted to give them what they wanted."
But who could have expected this?
Bolt has long been considered one of
his country's top, up-and-coming sprinters, but his height and running
style seemed to make him much more fit for the 200 and 400.
Like so many who compete in the 100,
Bolt had lots of work to do with his push out of the blocks. He doesn't
consider himself a true pro at that. And after a bad false start by the
field -- the second gun didn't go off until the runners were 20 meters
down the track -- this simply didn't seem like a night for world
records.
But it was.
"He ran a perfect race," Gay
said. "I've got to take my hat off to him."
"An awesome athlete," said
Shawn Crawford, who finished sixth and witnessed history from two lanes
inside of Bolt. "The time shows it."
This marked the first time the record
had been set in the United States since the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta,
when Donovan Bailey ran a 9.84.
A lot is often said about Olympic
trials in the United States -- that given the depth of the roster, it
can be an even better meet than the actual Olympics. But face it, the
highlight of the pre-Olympic calendar could now be Jamaican nationals at
the end of June, when Bolt and Powell should square off. Powell, who set
the mark of 9.74 last September in Italy, is overcoming a chest injury
but is expected to be healthy soon.
Also at Jamaican nationals will be
Veronica Campbell-Brown, who won the women's 100 on Saturday in 10.91,
the fastest time of 2008.
The fastest time ever, though, now
belongs to Bolt, and it made a prophet out of Gay, who predicted that
with himself, Bolt and Powell lining up against each other over these
next few months, the record could go down, down, down.
The conditions were right.
The start of the meet was delayed by
an hour because of threatening storms in the area. Then, about halfway
through, a brief thunderstorm hit, cooling the track and leaving it with
just the faintest sheen of glistening moisture before the last, and
most-anticipated, race of the night. The tailwind was measured at 1.7
meters-per-second, .3 under the limit at which a record can be set.
After his victory, Bolt paraded around
with the Jamaican flag, accepted a hug from Gay, then went off to do
interviews. Race organizers, knowing they'd get a big Jamaican fanbase
out at Icahn Stadium on Randall's Island, had scheduled a post-meet
reggae concert for the crowd of about 6,000.
And what a perfect choice that was on
this history making night.
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