In Beijing 2008, Usain Bolt was just unstoppable in the 100m and
many say he could have obliterated the then world record of 9.72 seconds with a
time in the 9.5s or possibly even the 9.4s, but he began to celebrate even before
crossing the line. Such is the man’s swagger and confidence, that despite his
celebration he broke the world record by 0.03 seconds!
In London 2012, there were doubts regarding whether he would
defend his crown, and as usual he just strolled to wins in round 1 and the
semis and in the finals he broke his own Olympic record of 9.69 seconds by 0.06
seconds.
In Rio 2016, there were more doubters than there were in
London as Bolt had to his name only the fourth fastest time of the year and he
had had a hamstring injury just a month back which caused him to miss the
national trials.
Many questions were being asked about his chances of
capturing the medal in the event for the 3rd straight time.
In the heats Bolt had
a time of 10.07 which was the 4th fastest overall and was 0.06 seconds off Justin
Gatlin’s 10.01. The semi-finals turned on the heat a little bit for Bolt, but
just like in the round 1 he actually slowed down towards the end and seemed to
jog past the line with the fastest time in that round of 9.86 seconds. He had
sent a message across to Gatlin, his rival and the fastest man in the world across 100m in 2016.
The world now believed that the impossible dream of 3
consecutive Olympic wins in the same sprint event could be realised. An hour later the
athletes took their places on the starting blocks for the final. The gunshot
sounded and they were off.
I heard the following words on my television set with a
background noise of over 80,000 people cheering on the 8 athletes in the 100m
finals. (I say 8 but the whole world knows that just one man was being cheered
for)
Gatlin’s got a good
enough start, Bolt was a bit slow to begin, he’s got some work to do. Gatlin’s
in front, Bolt’s stretching out now, he’s coming after him….. HE’S IMMORTAL
NOW!
You can picture the final in your head by reading the bold
lettering. Bolt was slow out of the blocks and had the second slowest reaction
time of 0.155 seconds. After about 40 metres Gatlin was about 3-4 strides ahead
and looked like a man on a mission, and then Bolt did what only he can do and he
began effortlessly stretching to complete bigger strides and started breezing
past his competitors but he had only 1 person he was coming after and that was
Justin Gatlin With 10 metres to go, billions of people around the wold saw it.
Bolt was ahead of Gatlin and was continuing to extend his lead with those long
strides. He crossed the line 0.08 seconds ahead of Gatlin who secured a silver medal and 0.10 seconds ahead of De Grasse in bronze, and had won his 3rd
consecutive 100m Olympic title. The impossible dream had been realised.
Like a true champion he did just enough to get to the finals
had saved his best for when it was needed and had triumphed.
It was his 3rd Gold Medal in as many 100m Olympic
finals and in defending his title for the second time he secured his third
Olympic gold which enabled him to beat Carl Lewis’ record of 2 consecutive 100m Olympic Golds (1984
and 1988)
By winning it for the 3rd straight time, he had immortalised
himself in the history of Olympic track events. Never before had we seen such a
spectacular series of performances across games and such a record will be hard
to even be equalled, let alone beaten. In the words of the commentator…..
HE’S
IMMORTAL NOW!!!!
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