IAAF World Championships: With Bolt, lightning always strikes twice
Usain Bolt celebrates with silver medalist Warren Weir after the Men’s 200 metres final
On a calm night in Moscow, Usain Bolt raised another thunderous storm marching to the 200m Gold with consummate ease leaving his competitors to essentially battle for the honour to join him on the podium. Bolt raced to the tape in 19.66s which is the fastest time recorded this year.
While Bolt was a class apart, the supposed threat from Nickel Ashmeade and Adam Gemili never materialised. In the event, Bolt’s training partner Warren Weir took the silver with a personal best time of 19.79 and the delirious Curtis Mitchell snatched bronze with his effort that clocked a rather subdued 20.04.
But the night belonged to the one man that continues to dominate sprint athletics. Bolt completed a comfortable sprint double despite reaching Moscow with lingering uncertainty about his form and fitness. The Jamaican has laid all concerns to rest with a remarkably poised performance to emulate the feat achieved in London just over a year ago.
Bolt’s preparation for the race including a routine of elaborate showboating inside the indoor training facility moment before the eight athletes trooped out to start the 200m finals in Moscow. The Jamaican is incredibly self assured and if indeed there were a jangling nerve inside his towering frame, it doesn’t show on the man irrespective of the stage or the occasion.
Once the race began it was obvious how Bolt could simply let his hair down and relax with such playful abandon ahead of the most definitive races of his career. Even though the Jamaican superstar was the slowest off the blocks (reaction time of 0.177s), it barely mattered considering the manner in which he towered over his meagre competitors – taking charge of the race midway through the first hundred metres.
Weir kept his partner company, starting just a 1000th of a second faster than his countryman. Inspired by yet another brutal performance from Bolt, Weir spurred himself to produce his personal best time of 19.79 to take his maiden World Championship silver. Sprint races are a frenzied pursuit and if anyone that missed the real action were to glance around at Curtis Mitchell, they may have been forgiven to conclude that he just won the 200m race.
Such was his exuberance at winning the bronze medal that he ran around the lap wrapped in the star spangled banner as if he had just won the championship. Mitchell finished third ahead of Ashmeade and Gemili as he kept his head in front by a 100th of a second to snatch bronze from a fighting Ashmeade.
Churandy Martina was the fastest off the blocks, needing just 0.138s to take off at the gun, but the Dutchman could not make it count for much. Martina lost pace midway through the race, eventually settling for seventh position behind South African Anaso Jobodwana.
With the relay scheduled for tomorrow, it is difficult to imagine Bolt not picking up a third gold medal. The only thing that seems capable of halting the Jamaican Juggernaut is a dropped baton by an over eager teammate as Bolt seeks to sign off in style with three medals as he had done in 2009.
The World Championships in Moscow have witnessed a sprint double for both the Jamaicans – Bolt and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, who also won both the 100m and 200m women’s races.
Result:
Usain Bolt 19.66 WL
Warren Weir 19.79 PB
Curtis Mitchell 20.04
Nickel Ashmeade 20.05
Adam Gemili 20.08
Anaso Jobodwana 20.14
Churandy Martina 20.35
Jaysuma Saidy Ndure 20.37