Flying Bolt in Olympic mix after second fastest 100m time ever

by Michael Phillips

KINGSTON, Jamaica, May 5 - Usain Bolt has blown open the race for 100m gold in this summer's Olympics by recording a time of 9.76sec, the second fastest in history. Bolt's achievement is all the more remarkable given that he is better known as a 200m runner and had been expected to focus on that distance before the Games in Beijing.

"I will sit down with my coach to decide what we will do," the 6ft 3in Jamaican said after the race here on Saturday. "Everything had been geared towards the 200m. I wanted to run the 100m at this meeting and I was looking at 9.85."

Bolt may now decide to run both distances and, whatever his Olympic plans, Tyson Gay is likely to be among his main rivals. "It was amazing," said the American 100m and 200m world champion. "Words cannot describe it. His performance changes the whole picture of our event." Gay had opted to run only in the 200m at the Jamaica International meeting. Running for the first time this season, he won in 20.00sec.

When Gay completed the sprint double at last summer's World Championships in Osaka Bolt, who will celebrate his 22nd birthday during the Beijing Games, was second in the 200m. Losing out on gold has been one of the motivations that drove him to produce a run that only his fellow countryman, Asafa Powell who was missing from here with a chest injury, has bettered. Powell set the world record time of 9.74 in Rieti in September last year and Bolt would not rule out the chance he could match that. "You never know," he said, "you never know."

It was fitting that Bolt smashed his previous 100m best of 10.03 at Jamaica's National Stadium, 10 minutes from his home. It was on the same track six years ago that this Kingston-born sprinter won 200m gold and two relay silvers at the World Junior Championships. His progress has been edging towards this type of run but the biggest surprise is that it came in the 100m as last summer he broke the 36-year-old national 200m record held by Don Quarrie. As the watching Quarrie said: "It was a super, super run. He might want to change his Olympic plans now."

Bolt may even have allowed himself a rare celebration before sitting down to consider his options. "I have been working really hard this winter. I did not want to finish behind Tyson after last year," he said. "I used to party three times a month but now it is maybe five times a year. I stay away from that. I now play video games quite a lot."

The race was billed as a clash between Bolt and Wallace Spearmon, who finished third in the 200m in Osaka, but the American never had a chance to latch on to the Jamaican's start. Bolt won ahead of Darvis Patton, of the US, who was second in 10.08 with Antigua's Daniel Bailey third in 10.12. Spearmon was fifth in 10.13 with Kim Collins, the 2003 world champion from St Kitts and Nevis, sixth in 10.19.

Bolt's time is the first occasion that any sprinter has run 9.76. Powell took the world record to 9.74 from 9.77 and Gay is aware of the power of the new kid on the senior blocks. "If he is going to run the 100m [in Beijing], it is going to be very exciting," said Gay, whose quickest time for the distance is 9.84. "He is probably considered one of the best athletes ever now."

Sanya Richards, the American who will pose the biggest threat to Britain's world champion Christine Ohuruogu in Beijing, won the 400m in 50.60sec.

9.74 Asafa Powell below Jam

Rieti 9/9/07

9.76 Usain Bolt Jam

Kingston 3/5/08

9.77 Justin Gatlin US

Doha 12/5/06

9.79 Maurice Greene US

Athens 16/6/99

9.84 Donovan Bailey Can

Atlanta 27/7/96

9.84 Bruny Surin Can

Seville 22/8/99

9.84 Tyson Gay US

Zurich 18/8/06

9.85 Leroy Burrell US

Lausanne 6/7/94

9.85 Olusoji Fasuba Ngr

Doha 12/5/06

9.86 Carl Lewis US

Tokyo 25/8/91

9.86 Frankie Fredericks Nam

Lausanne 3/7/96

9.86 Ato Boldon Tri

Walnut 19/4/98

9.86 Francis Obikwelu Por

Athens 22/8/04