May 31, 2008 A Specialist Over 200 Meters Becomes a Favorite in the 100 By JOSHUA ROBINSON By his own admission, Usain Bolt has some bad running habits.
But whether it is glancing over his shoulder to check on his competition or easing up in the final steps of a race, those habits have not stopped him from becoming one of the favorites to lower the world record in the 100 meters and to win a gold medal at this summer’s Beijing Olympics. That is, if he enters the race.
Bolt, a 21-year-old Jamaican with a name for the headlines, is a specialist over 200 meters. He has yet to decide whether he will attempt the sprint double in Beijing.
“Over the last few years, he has been preparing mentally and physically for the 200,” his coach, Glen Mills, said. “It could be foolhardy to abandon all of that for one fast time only to realize that he should have stayed where he belonged.”
Bolt, who is 6 feet 5 inches and has run a national-record 19.75 in the 200, has competed in only four top-level 100-meter races. The fifth will come Saturday night, when he faces Tyson Gay, the defending world champion in the 100 and 200, at the Reebok Grand Prix on Randalls Island. Gay ran a wind-aided 9.76 at this meet last year. It was Bolt’s third race, however, that drew serious attention.
Earlier this month, Bolt ran the second-fastest 100 meters in history, 9.76 at the Jamaica International Invitational in Kingston. It was just two-hundredths of a second off the world record, set by his fellow Jamaican Asafa Powell last September.
Even then, Bolt seemed to take his foot off the gas down the stretch. To him, though, it made perfect sense. He was trying to see the clock.
“I was just looking to see what time I was running, because I wasn’t expecting to run 9.7,” he said Thursday at a news conference in Midtown Manhattan.
But why did he not finish the race first, then look at the clock?
“After you cross the line, you’ve passed the clock, so you’ve got to look at it before,” he said, before looking to his left at Gay. “I’m sure if you ask Tyson, he does the same thing.”
Gay just shrugged. If Bolt were to slow down at the end when the two match up Saturday, it would certainly make Gay’s life easier.
“I’m just as nervous racing him now in the 100,” said Gay, who edged Bolt over 200 meters at the 2007 world championships in Osaka, Japan.
Bolt started racing in the 100 last season, using it as speed work for the 200 and posting a time of 10.03 seconds.
Mills had originally wanted Bolt to try the 400, in which he had excelled as a teenager.
“In high school it was easy, because I was just working off talent,” Bolt said. “There wasn’t a lot of training behind the 400. But now I have to work really hard to get there. I really can’t handle that pressure right now.”
So when he flirted with the world record, Bolt felt vindicated in his choice.
“I told you I’m a 100 runner,” Mills recalled Bolt saying. “And I still said, ‘No, you’re a quarter-mile runner.’ ”
With his height, Bolt hardly fits the mold of a 100-meter sprinter, and it has made his success in the event all the more surprising. He may cover more ground with every stride, but keeping his lanky frame low during the early phase of a race has been a problem.
“He pops up sometimes and his reaction time fluctuates very much,” said Mills, adding, “He’s yet to do it as well as he’s done it in training.”
Like Gay, Bolt is known for struggling with his start before making up ground in the second half of the race with his remarkable top speed. That speed, according to Mills, is what makes him such a versatile runner.
“I have not seen a sprinter who has that kind of possibility to run a 9.76 in the 100, but also the potential to go below 44 in the 400,” Mills said.
Bolt has run a 45.28 in the 400.
Of course, with suspicions of doping constantly looming over the track world, Bolt’s meteoric rise has raised a few eyebrows. But he said that he had never used performance-enhancing drugs and that he had been tested five times in 2008.
If that is a bad habit Bolt does not have, he still looks over his shoulder in the middle of races. Not even the American Wallace Spearmon could cure him of that.
“He always used to beat me because I was looking over,” Bolt said. “But nobody stopped me when I was younger, so I guess it just followed me to the professional level.”
Bad habits or not, even fewer people can stop him now.
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Registered: 05/18/00
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Congrats to Bolt. He has a fitting surname for his performance.
However, remember last year a debate raged on this site and elsewhere about which was more important: establishing world records or winning a title; namely, at the Olympic Games? For Bolt, no such debate exists:
Quote:
Bolt sets new 100m world record
Bolt won silver in the 200m at last year's World Championships Usain Bolt set a new 100m world record by clocking 9.72 seconds at the Reebok Grand Prix meeting in New York.
The 21-year-old Jamaican, who won silver in the 200m at last year's World Championships, was running the 100m for just the fifth time.
Bolt beats the previous best of 9.74 set by compatriot Asafa Powell.
"I wasn't looking for a world record but it was there for the taking so I just went out there and ran my best race," he said.
The 6ft 5ins sprinter made the track world sit up and take note on 3 May when he clocked the second-fastest 100m time in history in 9.76s.
Bolt beat Tyson Gay into second place, with the American running a personal best of 9.85.
Bolt has made no secret of the fact that he sees himself as a 200m specialist and earlier in the week he was still undecided if he would even enter the 100m Jamaican Olympic trials.
My first start wasn't that good but I knew if I got Tyson on the start I would have a better chance of winning
However, after becoming the fastest man on the planet he confirmed he would now double up in Beijing: "I'm definitely going to run the 100 in the Olympics.
"I've just got to concentrate now and work on my 200 some more, because I haven't been doing a lot of 200 work."
And despite setting the world record, Bolt still considers the Olympics to be the big prize.
"I don't think there's any comparison between the two," he said.
"You've got to be Olympic champion or world champion to really count.
"Tomorrow if someone comes and runs faster than me I'm no longer the fastest man in the world. If you're the Olympic champion then they have to wait four more years to get you again.
"I think the Olympics is the biggest thing, so I'm looking for that, definitely."
Bolt has primarily used the shorter distance to improve his start and admitted he was happy there had been a false start the first time he went into the blocks.
"I was glad of that first false start," he said.
"My first start wasn't that good but I knew if I got Tyson on the start I would have a better chance of winning.
"Tyson and I aren't really good at starting so, my coach said concentrate on your drive (out of the blocks) and transition phase, get it right and just take it from there and I did exactly that."
He added: "I got out well. I've been working on my start for a while.
"I think I did good work today on my start. I'm just happy with myself."
I was at the meet and it was amazing and I really think he could run faster. My main concern is that the Olympics is not a one off race. Does he have the stamina and experience to navigate the rounds in both the 200m and the 100m events?
BTW, I think the meet will be broadcast on CBS at 1:30 pm today.
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if he were to have problems such as soreness and fatigue, it probably would not show up until the 200m. The first day of the 100m should be easy, where most athletes have problems is the relatively short time between the semis and the finals.
Wow....this is great we now have two of the fastest men on the planet
Jamaican Sets World Record in 100 Meters at 9.72
Usain Bolt of Jamaica after setting a world record in the 100 meters on Randalls Island on Saturday.
And the 6,490 fans were greeted with a stunning performance as Bolt set a world record in 9.72 seconds, competing in the event for only the fifth time in a professional race. His mark eclipsed the previous record of 9.74, set last September by his countryman Asafa Powell, and left Tyson Gay of the United States, the 2007 world champion, more than a yard behind in 9.85.
The Jamaican crowd got a double dose of victory as Veronica Campbell-Brown, the reigning world champion, also won her race, in 10.91 seconds, the fastest women’s 100 in the world this year.
A majority of fans at Icahn Stadium seemed to be dressed in green and gold. Some waved the Jamaican national flag. The Jamaican national anthem was sung during a rain delay, and reggae music blared on the public address system. Miss Jamaica even interviewed sprinters while wearing her sash.
The crowd’s enthusiasm was not dampened by a rain delay, even as the men’s 100 was run nearly two hours after it had been scheduled because of weather concerns. Bolt, who is tall for a sprinter at 6 feet 5 inches, had an imperfect start in the first attempt to run the race, but received a reprieve after another sprinter false-started.
Given his height, the 21-year-old Bolt has not been a technically precise, ballistic starter. Where shorter runners seem to explode out of the blocks, he seems to unfold. At least until Saturday, his strategy for the 100 had been to try to remain close over the first 30 meters, then draw away with his long stride.
The field, which paired Bolt against Gay in what was considered a possible preview of the Olympic final at this summer’s Beijing Games, appeared nervous. The second attempt to run Saturday’s race was aborted when runners stood up in the blocks.
On the third attempt, Bolt got a searing start and Gay never threatened. Gay ran only one-hundredth of a second off his personal best, but he finished a distant second. The tailwind was 1.7 meters per second, under the allowable limit of 2 meters per second.
Bolt threw his arms up and circled the track, beating on his chest at one point at the sheer dominance and improbability of the moment.
“I knew if I got Tyson on the blocks, I’d have a better chance of winning,” Bolt said. “I got him.”
Gay managed to close slightly, but quickly he felt the race slip beyond his control.
“He got a pretty good start, maybe a little better than I thought,” Gay said. “I didn’t realize his stride was so big. I honestly think we were on the same rhythm, except his stride pattern was so much bigger. He covered more ground than I did.”
Until last month, Bolt was a 200-meter specialist. He finished second in the 200 to Gay at the 2007 world championships. Then, as a speed workout, he entered a 100-meter race in Jamaica in early May. The result was then the second-fastest 100 ever run — 9.76 seconds.
All of a sudden, Bolt had become a major player in the 100 as well. Until Saturday, though, his coach, Glen Mills, cautioned against expecting Bolt to run the 100 in Beijing, saying it might be foolhardy to risk a chance at winning a gold medal at 200 meters by trying to double in the shorter race.
“I think it will change today,” Bolt said. “I wasn’t looking for a world record, but it was there for the taking.”
Even with his world record, though, Bolt declined to say that he preferred the 100 over the 200. He is the Jamaican record holder in the 200 at 19.75 seconds and a former world junior champion in the event. As startling as Saturday’s performance was, it will take an Olympic gold medal to validate the world record, Bolt said.
“You can have the world record, but to me, if you don’t have a gold medal in the Olympics or world championships, it means nothing,” Bolt said.
Saturday was the first time that he had competed in the 100 against world-class competition outside Jamaica, even if a majority of fans were on his side. The weather-related delay added further questions about his ability to remain calm under pressure. In 9.72 seconds, he answered all those questions.
“I always perform good in front of my Jamaican fans,” Bolt said. “They’re so loud. And I like noise.”
Gentlemen...this has been in the making since he was at high school...they been strengthen him for 200 metres the whole time...and he has been running 20. likkle bit...they recognise the struggle in asafa...and now dem give him a partner....
1 2 fi Olympics memba mi tell yu...as a matter a fact...it might even be a rahtid deadheat!
_________________________ Truly great madness cannot be achieved without significant intelligence
Aren't we jumping to conclusions before tt and Ato review the tape to see if it's a fluke run?
doh be a jackass! I said I thought the first run was suspect, I cam back and said I askd ato what he thought and he told me it was legit as legit can be..He even sat down with me and broke the race down expaling away my doubts!
So what is allyuh real problem?
Steups.
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