It was easy to be confused. Usain Bolt sat next to a Scottish singer with an Italian name in a Chinese jazz bar and answered questions about Spanish basketball. Nevertheless, the fact that the biggest track star at these Olympics had to be told by the media that he would be running in the 100metres in ten days' time was still mind-boggling.

“I'm 80 per cent sure I'll be doubling up,” the world record-holder said. He was then informed that his coach, Glen Mills, had said several days ago that he would be doing the 100 metres and 200 metres. “If he said that, he did not communicate it with me,” he said. “He is a second father to me and is trying to guide me in the right way. This is the first miscommunication I have had with my coach and I hope it will never happen again.”

In other sports, or even events, this would be remarkable. Bolt may well become the star of these Games and win three gold medals - in the 100 metres, 200 metres and 4x100 metres relay - so his deference to Mills is a throwback. He says knowing which events he is doing does not affect his training, but admitted that he needs to work on his start in the 100 metres. “If I get a good start, I know I'm going to do well,” Bolt said. “It's all pretty much down to how I react.”

Having been told his schedule by the media, Bolt looked close to tedium. “I was 80 per cent sure I'd double and now I'm 100,” he said. It was no big deal, although Puma, Jamaica and the Olympic Movement may have breathed a collective sigh of relief. With Bolt, his compatriot, Asafa Powell, and Tyson Gay, the American, in the running, the 100 metres has the potential to become an historic event.

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“Beijing is pretty humid so it will be difficult, but I think 9.8 [seconds] is possible, probably around 9.85,” Bolt said. If the winner runs 9.85, it will equal Justin Gatlin's winning time from Athens and be a hundredth of a second slower than Donovan Bailey's world record set in 1996. Most people are hoping for more. Wallace Spearmon, the 200 metres runner destroyed by Bolt at Crystal Palace last month, said the trio could dip below 9.7 and 9.8 may earn only sixth place.

Gay is the big unknown, because he has been struggling with a hamstring injury suffered at the US trials, but he has declared himself “ready to go” and if he is in the shape he showed before his problems, running 9.77 at the trials in Eugene, Oregon, he could spoil Jamaica's love-in. “I want Tyson to be fit because otherwise people will say he had an injury,” Bolt said. “He beat me over 200 metres last season so I told him I'd be back this year. If I want to be the best, I have to beat the best.”

As for Powell, his friend sometimes considered susceptible to pressure, notably in coming third to Gay and Derrick Atkins at the World Championships in Osaka, Japan, last year, he said: “When I broke his world record, he said, ‘Thanks, you've taken a lot of pressure off me.' But I like pressure.”

Powell's quickest time in his injury-marred summer is 9.82, but he is happier away from the spotlight. Bolt is different. He sat next to Paolo Nutini, the singer-songwriter, at a PR event yesterday, shamelessly gawped at the legs of the Chinese translator and said no, he would not be eating rats or spiders while in China. In such circumstances, not knowing which gold medals you are after is perhaps no great surprise. What he does know now is just what he is trying to achieve and he is glad if it makes people happy. “I guess I just blew people's mind in the 100 metres,” he said. Nutini nodded.