Usain Bolt now has two world records, the 100 meters and the 200 meters. His 200 meter record of 19.30, broke a twelve year old record by Michael Johnson, which I also witnessed. Bolt’s dominance of the sprints has the track & field world talking, this is how I saw the race…
USAIN BOLT
Men’s 200 Meters
Someone said that records are made to be broken. Running from lane five, Usain Bolt ” ran his heart out”, coming off the turn with a sizable lead and just blazed away, breaking the world record of one Michael Johnson, set twelve years ago in Atlanta. His gear after 140 meters was insane, as he destroyed the field, winning in a new World and Olympic record of 19.30! In second was Martina Chardinay of Netherland Antilles ran 19.82 for his third National record of the Games. And at first, Wallace Spearmon was third, but was disqualified for running out of lane nine. The sad thing was, no one told Wallace until after he had completed his victory lap and he looked and said , ” Me”? thinking it was a joke. Shawn Crawford, the 2004 gold medalist moved up to the third position. Crawford ran 19.96 and Walter Dix in fourth, ran 19.98.
Brian Dzingai of Zimbabwe ran 20.22 for fifth. Christian Malcolm of Great Britain ran 20.40 and Kim Collins, the 2003 Wold Champion, ran 20.59 for seventh. Wallace Spearmon was disqualified for infringing on IAAF rule 163.3, running outside of the lane. To my eyes, he ran on the lane for four steps and one in the next lane, but did not infringe on the other runner. The US is making a protest.
This was Usain Bolt’s second world record and second gold medal of the Games. He has won both with frightening speed and in this race, he showed his true ability. In my mind, the world record at 100 meters, 9.69 is tremendous but the really impressive record is this one the 19.30 for 200 meters.
If you want to hear my complete thoughts, check NPR tomorrow around five pm your local time. Tom Goldman, the NPR sports columnist, and I had a chat on the nature of our sport, Usain Bolt and other minutae. It was quite fun and Tom is a wonderful interviewer. Check it out!
For more on athletics, please check www.american-trackandfield.com
