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Usain Bolt: Showman Strikes Again In Beijing

By Editor
29 August 2015   |   1:08 am
Even then it was too late. By the time a cameraman chasing the great champion had clipped his winged heels and sent them both to the deck, Bolt was halfway round his lap of honour and his latest line-up of victims trudging out of the stadium with their spikes slung round their necks.
Bolt won both 100m and 200m titles in Beijing

Bolt won both 100m and 200m titles in Beijing

So now we know: the way to bring down Usain Bolt is to blindside him with a Segway.

Even then it was too late. By the time a cameraman chasing the great champion had clipped his winged heels and sent them both to the deck, Bolt was halfway round his lap of honour and his latest line-up of victims trudging out of the stadium with their spikes slung round their necks.

The 100m final had been close. Only one hundredth of a second had separated Bolt and his rival, Justin Gatlin, on Sunday night, even if a chasm opened up between them in the aftermath.

This 200m showdown, the rematch, the chance for Gatlin to gain revenge and a little glory after all the controversy and carping of the last seven days?

This one was over in less than two-hundredths of a second. Bolt’s reaction time from his blocks was 0.147 seconds. Gatlin’s was 0.161. The gap between them would only grow.

For a man who has so regularly made the impossible real, Bolt’s victories can also seem pre-ordained and predictable within moments of him hurtling alone through the line.

He is almost a victim of his own brilliance. There seems no room for doubt, even if it was an unacknowledged guest in minds around the world before he settled into his blocks.

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