Bolt to compete at London's Anniversary Games

LONDON (AFP) –

Usain Bolt celebrates after Jamaica won the men's 4x100 relay final at the London 2012 Olympic Games, August 11, 2012

Jamaica’s Usain Bolt celebrates after Jamaica won and set a new world record in the men’s 4×100 relay final at the athletics event of the London 2012 Olympic Games in London on August 11, 2012. Six-time Olympic sprint champion Bolt will compete at the Anniversary Games at London’s Olympic Park in July, organisers confirmed on Wednesday.

Six-time Olympic sprint champion Usain Bolt will compete at the Anniversary Games at London’s Olympic Park in July, organisers confirmed on Wednesday.

The Jamaican powered to gold medals in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay in London last year to replicate his extraordinary achievements at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

He is due to run in both the 100m and the 4x100m relay, in what will be the last major meet before the World Championships in Moscow.

“I’m looking forward to coming back to the UK, especially with it being a year since winning three gold medals in the Olympic Stadium,” Bolt told the website of British Athletics.

“The crowd were amazing at the Games, and I hope they will be out again in their numbers at the end of July.

“I haven’t competed at the London Diamond League since 2009 but it has always been a great meet with lots of Jamaican support – it almost feels like running at home.”

Bolt will be joined in the 100m by 2003 world champion Kim Collins, of Saint Kitts and Nevis, who missed last year’s Games after falling out with team officials over an authorised visit to his wife.

In total, 12 Olympic gold-medallists will take part in the July 26-28 event.

The participation of British Olympic champions Jessica Ennis, Mo Farah and Greg Rutherford was confirmed on Tuesday.

However, event organisers said that six-time Paralympic champion Oscar Pistorius would not be invited as he awaits trial over the murder of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp.

Pistorius claims he fatally shot Steenkamp after mistaking her for an intruder at his Pretoria home in February.

“I don’t want to see the Sunday of the Anniversary Games (which will be devoted to Paralympic sports) turning into a media circus,” Ed Warner, the chairman of UK Athletics, told BBC radio.

“It would over-shadow every other athlete that was there. It’s not about innocent or guilty, it’s about how you handle an individual with a difficult moral situation hanging over them.”