The most aptly-named athlete ever starting to take his second best event more seriously (UPDATED)

Going off topic perhaps (to the relief of some, we assume) but something pretty amazing happened over the weekend and that was Jamaican sprinter, Usain Bolt, just blowing up the world record in the 100m at the Track and Field World Championships in Berlin.

Bolt, uhh... flashed onto the scene last summer at the Olympics by setting the world record in the 100m by running a 9.69 in the Beijing Games, besting his previous world record mark of 9.72. Many, though, wondered what this raw and green (age 22) sprinter who actually considers the 200 his strong suit would be capable of if he dropped the clowning and preening (and that’s all just during the race) and just ran.

Well, we all found out Sunday as Bolt crushed a jaw-dropping 9.58 which represented the largest improvement in world record times since they went to electronic timing in the late 60s.

Poor Tyson Gay, America’s best sprinter, who finished second with a 9.71 which was a personal best and which would have garnered him the title “World’s Fastest Human” if he ran this race just last year.

Here’s Bolt’s performance

and to those who speak Russian…




(UPDATE #1): Another day, another world record crushed. Cementing his place for top contender for Sportsman of the year, Usain Bolt got back to his supposed strong suit and shaved .11 seconds off of his own world record by dropping a 19.19 hammer in the 200m final yesterday at the world track and field championships in Berlin. Enjoy.

Tape Delay: Not so bad, afterall.

While it is difficult to shut oneself off completely from the news of the world all day in order to not hear about results from the Olympics until primetime programming, there is at least one advantage, in our opinion.

Instead of experiencing the unexpected shock and anguish of watching in tape-delay real-time the dropping of the baton by both the U.S. men’s and women’s 4x100 meter relays, we read about it this morning already so we should be well-fortified to handle the continuing meltdown of the U.S. sprint and hurdle team.

Counting the botches last night, there have been 4 major blunders now in the past 3 days. 3 nights ago Lolo Jones hit the second-to-last hurdle in the 100 meter hurdle costing her near-certain gold and 2 nights ago, Wallace Spearmon was DQ’d for running out of his lane in the finals of the men’s 200 meters costing him a bronze. Maybe it was the Jamaicans who got into the heads of the Americans in the sprints earlier in the meet or perhaps it’s the rainy weather but the track team has become a collective basket case the past few days.

'08 Beijing Olympic Update (sans the Chi-com mascot)

(One in an occasional series provided during the run-up to the ’08 Summer Games in Beijing, China. Archived posts in this series can be accessed by entering “Olympics” in the blog search box above).

The brutally unforgiving nature of the U.S. Olympic trials was on display over the weekend as 100 and 200 meter favorite Tyson Gay pulled up in a 200 preliminary heat with a strained hamstring. His dream of a 100/200 sweep is now gone…. no do-overs, no mulligans, no byes for outstanding bodies of work. Win and you’re in – lose and you go home. Fortunately, for Gay he qualified for the Olympics by popping a wind-aided 9.68 in the 100 finals earlier in the Trials which is the fastest time ever recorded in the event but not a record because the tail wind exceeded the allowable 2 meters/second.

Everyone, including his competitors, expressed heartfelt emotion towards Gay (a soft-spoken and humble guy in the sprint events that seem to display the most diva-like behavior) and his plight but also to a person and in particular, Gay himself, favored the rigid structure of the Trials believing that to succeed in the pressure-cooker of the Olympics, one needed to bring their “A”-game to the Trials.

And what about Bernie, you ask? You all remember Bernard Lagat, don’t you? We wrote about Bernard here last August. Lagat, a native Kenyan and a naturalized citizen since 2004 won the 1,500 meter finals at the world championships in Osaka. It was the first time an American won the 1,500 at a global event since Mel Sheppard won it back in ’08. Yes, that Mel Sheppard in the other ’08.



After winning the race, here’s what Bernard had to say to the world and his new brothers and sisters: “This is a dream come true. I'm a champion for the United States of America.” “When you're carrying this flag, it means a lot, You're representing everybody, the victims of Katrina, everybody. Those who are serving in the war in Iraq. This is for everybody in the United States.” Pretty cool, huh?

Bernard was the top qualifier for the U.S. at the Trials in both the 1,500 and the 5,000. Obviously, we will be keeping a close eye on how Lagat fares against his formidable former countrymen in these two events.