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Bolt — floats like Pele, stings like Ali
RIO DE JANEIRO: Usain Bolt put the seal on a glittering Olympic career Friday with a blistering 4x100m relay victory that clinched sprint’s first ever ‘triple triple’.
RIO DE JANEIRO: Usain Bolt put the seal on a glittering Olympic career Friday with a blistering 4x100m relay victory that clinched sprint’s first ever ‘triple triple’.
Victory wasn’t guaranteed when Bolt took the baton for the anchor leg but he powered down the straight to cross in 37.27sec before soaking up the acclaim from an adoring crowd.
With his unprecedented third straight 100m, 200m and 4x100m clean sweep, Bolt joins Carl Lewis and Paavo Nurmi on a record-equalling nine track and field Olympic gold medals.
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED
Bolt insisted it was “mission accomplished” after achieving the ‘treble-treble’ and predicted that his achievements may never be broken.
The world’s fastest man anchored Jamaica’s 4x100m relay team to gold on a balmy Rio night on Friday to capture the 100m, 200m and relay titles for a third straight Games.
“I hope I’ve set the bar high enough that no one can do it again,” said sprint king Bolt, a ninth Olympic gold medal safely in the bank.
“It’s a great feeling – I’ve worked so hard every Olympics to win three gold medals and I’m just so happy I’ve accomplished so much,” he added, admitting his Olympic farewell was tinged with a little sadness.
“I knew it was going to be done and I’m definitely going to miss the crowd and the energy, and I’m going to miss the competition.
“It’s just have mixed feelings now, but it’s been a great career. I’ll have to make a new bucket list now, I’ve achieved all I wanted to in track and field.”
Bolt, who has said he will retire after next year’s world championships in London, brought Jamaica home in 37.27 seconds ahead of surprise silver medallists Japan and Canada, promoted to third after the United States were disqualified.
He also made it a perfect nine wins out of nine Olympic finals he has contested, but confessed to feeling nervous before Nickel Ashmeade brought him the baton.
“I was just watching them and praying they didn’t mess up,” said Bolt, who turns 30 when the Rio Games close on Sunday.
“As soon as I got the baton, I knew I was going to win this one. There’s no one on the anchor leg going to out-run me. I told the guys: ‘don’t give me too much work to do!’ It’s a relief because I’ve had all this pressure over the years to achieve gold medals, back-to-back all the time.”
LEGACY UNTARNISHED
Bolt insisted his legacy would survive unscathed even if former relay teammate Nesta Carter is found guilty of doping at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Reports surrounding Carter surfaced in the months leading up to the Rio Games, claiming that in re-tests of frozen blood and urine samples from Beijing, Carter, who ran the 4x100m relay with Bolt, tested positive for a banned substance.
