Time stood still in the Birds Nest last night. The clock at first registered
9.68sec just as Usain Bolt was hurtling across the finishing line and
heading with jet-propelled shoes towards the stands on the far side of the
track. When it was adjusted to a mere 9.69sec, in the interests of modesty,
91,000 people still rubbed their eyes in astonishment not just at the new
world record time but at the fact that the new Olympic champion was
showboating 10m before the finish. Had he pulled out all the stops, the
clock would have cried out for mercy.
There were conflicting images of this memorable and almost mystical night. One
was of the two other Jamaicans in the field, Michael Frater and Asafa
Powell, fifth and sixth respectively, standing shoulder to shoulder looking
up in bewilderment at the big screen, first at the times and then at the
replay of the fastest 100m in history, in which they had barely played bit
parts. In the meantime, the new champion was cavorting with a legion of
Jamaican fans 100m away.
The other image comes from 1988 and the sense of disbelief at the overwhelming
dominance of Ben Johnson. The side-on shot showed the same chasm between
first and second in Seoul; fronton photographs also recorded the sideways
glance that Carl Lewis gave Johnson on the line. Had he been able to see
that far, Richard Thomson’s face might have registered the same mixture of
dismay and disbelief last night.
“I see him slowing down in front of me and I’m still pumping away,” said the
Trin-idadian. “Usain’s a phenomenal athlete. No one will beat him if he runs
like that.” The thought echoed the sentiments of Michael Johnson, whose
world record of 19.32sec looks under severe threat if the 21-year-old - he
turns 22 in four days time - decides to get serious in time for the 200m
this week. “We have seen the greatest display of 100m sprinting in history,”
said Johnson.
“Once he runs it properly, his record will never be broken.”
The context to this 100m is thrilling or chilling, depending on your point of
view. Bolt is a born showman, an athlete who plays to the crowd with
unabashed glee, miming the firing of an arrow - bolt from the blue, one
presumes - and dancing to the imaginary music running through his head. Bolt
said later that he likes to stay relaxed before his races, but any more
relaxed and he might start doing handstands halfway down the runway.
In the midst of the celebrations, anyone with half a heart had to mourn for
Asafa Powell, Bolt’s countryman and, until the meteoric emergence of his
young training partner, the undisputed king of the sprint track. Powell knew
his fate well before last night’s electrifying final. His starts had been
sluggish throughout the heats and the semi-final and his footwork leaden, at
least compared to Bolt, who ran as if on rails.
Perhaps Powell suspected his Olympic dreams were over the moment that he
learnt of Bolt’s world record time of 9.72sec, run on a stormy night in
Randall’s Island, New York, a month ago. On a recent visit to London, Powell
admitted that he was a trifle surprised by the news. Bolt had only run five
major races at 100m and he was scarcely a seasoned veteran in Beijing last
night.
Bolt’s victory, achieved with a burst of speed from 50m to 70m that took him
well clear of the field and allowed him to drop his hands and turn towards
the stands to encourage acknowledgement of his brilliance, was a
breakthrough for Jamaica, a small island in the Caribbean with a rich
history of sprinting. Now that troubled island has an Olympic champion to
celebrate. The top seven fastest times in the world have all emanated not
just from the same island, but from the same parish in Jamaica, from the
same grass running track and the same dilapidated gym. If they got some
decent facilities in Kingston, heaven knows where the clock might stop.
Other factors fell Bolt’s way. Tyson Gay, the world champion, was slowed by a
hamstring injury and failed to make the final. None of the other finalists
had the mind, the speed or the psychological armoury to unsettle Bolt.
Powell, striving to succeed on the biggest stage after his failure in Athens
four years before, looked the most tense. It must be unnerving to have a
challenge to your status launched from lower down the hill in Kingston where
the pair both live. But Powell’s 9.95sec only confirmed his vulnerability on
the big occasion.
“Asafa will be back,” said Bolt. “So will Tyson Gay. To be the best, you want
to beat the best and Tyson wasn’t in the race, so I’m looking forward to
competing with them again next season.” The feeling is probably not mutual.
In contrast, Bolt’s coolness was as transparent in the press room as it had
been on the track. No, he didn’t know he had broken the world record until
he saw the scoreboard. “My aim was to be the Olympic champion and I did just
that, so I’m happy with myself,” he said. Yes, the gold medal would mean a
lot to his country, but it would mean as much to him. “I just went out there
and executed,” he said.
Sprinters have been on the front line in the fight against doping for so long,
it might require a day or two to acknowledge the first sub-9.7sec 100m
runner. Powell himself had said recently he was ready to do so, but his
countryman has actually done it. If, as he protests, Bolt is clean, then he
is the best advertisement for his sport in a decade, a far cry from the
muscular Christians like Maurice Greene who turned the event into an
American dominion, with disastrous consequences. Bolt is a character,a
performer, blessed with so much natural talent he might just be real. Nobody
measuring 6ft 5in has tried to sprint at this level before.
Bolt’s followers in Jamaica have long been touting his name ahead of Powell’s.
At the age of 15, Bolt became the youngest ever winner of a junior sprint
title, running the 200m in just 20.61sec at a meeting in Kingston when he
was still a schoolboy at the William Knibb High School. Shortly after, he
was the first junior athlete to break 20sec for the 200m. Only recently has
he started to add the 100m to his repertoire.
“Can I break 9.6 seconds?” Bolt mused. “I couldn’t say. I haven’t seen the
replay.” When he does all doubt will be removed. Johnson’s reign as Olympic
champion lasted barely a day in 1988. Athletics will pray that Bolt’s new
world record and his credibility survives for rather longer than that.
