Bolt injury free, ready to defend titles, says manager

Kingston (Jamaica), July 25: Triple Olympic gold medallist Usain Bolt is injury free and ready to defend his titles at the 30th Olympiad starting in London Friday, his long time manager Norman Peart said.

Peart’s announcement comes as Bolt, one of the main attractions at the Olympics, prepares to retain the 100m, 200 and 4x100m relay titles he won in Beijing four years ago in world-record times, reports CMC.

He was forced to pull out of last Friday’s Monaco Diamond League meet as a result of a right hamstring problem he experienced during the recent Jamaican Olympic trials.

“At this stage if we had anything, any problem, it would have been a crisis, we are saying there is no crisis,” declared Peart during an interview on Jamaican radio.

“It’s all good. If it has been something more than that, then obviously he would not have been in the camp,” Peart explained.

Bolt is coming to the Olympics following the double blow of losing the 100m and 200m to training partner Yohan Blake at the Jamaica trials.

After his 200m loss to Blake, Bolt lay flat on his back and had his right hamstring stretched out by a trainer.

However, Peart says Bolt has shrugged off the right hamstring problem and is now ready to compete.

“He is at the camp, there are no doctors with him,” Peart said.

“It’s just the regular people like his coach and everybody else and he is absorbing all the training.”

Bolt is already in the United Kingdom as part of a 50-strong Jamaican squad participating in the Games, which begin with an opening ceremony Friday.

Peart says the management team has left all aspect of Bolt’s fine tuning to his coach Glen Mills, rated as one of the best in the world.

“We don’t tend to talk to him too much because he is a guy full of confidence,” Peart added.

“Sometimes we just check on the coach to see what’s happening. We tend not to talk to him too much.”

Bolt begins his defence of the men’s 100-metre title at the Olympics Aug 4.

–IANS/CMC

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