who is to deny Usain Bolt?!?!
New Olympic 100m Track and Field Champion - The fastest man in the world!- World Record
Lightning Bolt wins 100m gold | FoxSports - Fox Sports
Lightning Bolt wins 100m gold
USAIN Bolt last night made himself the biggest star athletics has seen since Carl Lewis, annihilating the field in the men's 100m final, running 9.69sec to break his own world record.
In one of the most extraordinary one-off performances ever seen at an Olympic Games, the rangy 196cm tall 21-year-old Jamaican sheared .03sec off his own record to win his country its first 100m men's gold medal.
Bolt was laughing as he crossed the line as he was that far ahead of the chasing pack with Trinidad's Richard Thompson grabbing the silver medal in 9.89sec and American Walter Dix the bronze in 9.91sec.
"I've been training all year for this,'' he said. "I could maybe go 9.60 the way I looked."
The major disappointment of the final was former world record holder Asafa Powell who finished fifth in 9.95sec.
With one run, Bolt turned the Olympic Games on its head. Over the last 20 metres he ran with his arms outstretched to celebrate his victory and he ran with one shoelace undone and the laces flapping. He is so young he could go on and be anything.
On Wednesday night Bolt will attempt to become the first man since Lewis in 1984 to win the 100m-200m sprint double at an Olympic Games and on last night's evidence there is no-one in the world who can stop him.
He will also threaten Michael Johnson's thought-to-be untouchable world record of 19.32sec set on a searing track in Atlanta in 1996.
Being a Jamaican, Bolt loves cricket and in Beijing last week he said his cricketing idols were Australians Adam Gilchrist and Matt Hayden.
"They bat aggressive and I really like it, that is who I am really,'' Bolt said.
While shattered with his own performance Powell, who still hasn't won a gold medal at a major championship, lauded his good friend's performance.
"I am very disappointed for myself but I am delighted for Usain," he said. "He could have gone even faster if he'd gone in a straight line.
"He is definitely the greatest sprinter of all time and we just have to look out for what he does next."
Bolt's arrival as a legitimate megastar comes at a crucial time for the sport which has taken a battering in recent years following a string of drug controversies.
The writing was on the wall after the semi-finals when Bolt cruised down in 9.85sec, just .01sec off the Olympic record which Donovan Bailey had held since 1996.
As he'd done in the second round heat the previous evening, the giant Jamaican spent the second half of the race looking at the big television screen and then at his rivals such was the ease of his work.
It was in the second semi-final, which Powell won in 9.91sec, that the event lost its much-hyped third key player with reigning world champion Tyson Gay failing to qualify.
The American strained his hamstring during the 200m at the US Olympic trials in June and hadn't been able to compete in the lead-up to the Games.
Despite bravely trying to talking up his chances during the week, Gay looked rusty in the opening two heats and from lane nine last night he finished fifth in 10.05sec.
"I don't know (what happened)," he said. "I just didn't have nothin' in me today. I ran as fast as I could. I focussed on the Olympics so I'm disappointed. I thought I would get into the finals."
Gay, who clocked a wind-assisted time of 9.68sec at the US trials, refused to blame his hamstring on the below-par performance.
"The injury was a setback to my training, but that's no excuse because my hamstring feels fine," he said. "I feel great, I feel strong, I feel relaxed, it just wasn't there."
This had clearly been the most anticipated Olympic men's 100m final since Seoul in 1988 when the infamous Ben Johnson went head-to-head with the Lewis.
It had all the elements in the lead-up. The new world record holder taking on the former world record holder, who just happened to be a fellow countryman and close friend, and the reigning world champion.
The Powell-Gay rivalry had been established at last year's world championships where the Jamaican finished third after choking in the final behind the American while Bolt has come into the picture this year.
He was only doing the 100m this season to improve his speed for his preferred event the 200m and was as surprised as everyone when he took .02sec off Powell's world record, running 9.72sec in New York on June 1.
There has always been a buzz about Bolt since as a 15-year-old he won the world junior 200m title but his laid-back care-free attitude and love of a good time had been seen by some as a possible problem.
Bolt and Powell, who hang out together when at home in Kingston, have raced several times and while Bolt won the Jamaican Olympic trial in June, Powell got revenge in Stockholm in late July, signalling he was back to his best after being plagued by minor injury problems throughout the year.
Remarkably given last night's events, Bolt hadn't made up his mind to run the 100m until he arrived in Beijing two weeks. His main focus has always been the 200m, in which he won the silver medal at last year's world championships, and he has the fastest time this year of 19.67sec.
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