Bolt confident lightning will strike London, he will be ‘unbeatable’
LONDON: Usain Bolt is confident he can produce one more magical Midas touch when he seeks to defend his 100m title at the IAAF World Championships.
In eight individual finals at the past four worlds (as well as in four 4x100m relay finals, Bolt has only suffered one hiccup: when he false started in the 100m final in Daegu in 2011.
Eleven world titles to go along with eight Olympic golds: Bolt has the experience of dealing with multi-round big-event racing. It would be a brave person to bet against the 30-year-old Jamaican, no matter how sluggish, relatively speaking, his season has been so far.
He has had only three outings, all over 100m, and only once dipped under the 10-second barrier, in Monaco last month (9.95sec).
“If I show up at a championships, I’m fully confident,” Bolt maintained. “My coach (Glen Mills) is confident and I’m ready to go. I’m fully confident, 100 percent.”
Whilst labelling himself “for some reason, the underdog,” Bolt fired out a warning shot at potential rivals by saying he wanted to bring the curtain down on his individual exploits as a sprinter who was “unbeatable, unstoppable.”
Bolt suffered a rare defeat in the 100m by two-time doping cheat Justin Gatlin at the Rome Diamond League meet in 2013, losing out by a hundredth of a second. The multi-medalled American, now 35, will be in the field in the British capital and a nailed-down contender for a podium place.
INJURED DE GRASSE TO MISS LONDON EVENT
LONDON: Olympic medalist Andre De Grasse has withdrawn from the track and field world championships after failing to overcome a hamstring injury.
Athletics Canada issued a statement late Wednesday saying the 22-year-old sprinter hurt his hamstring in training on Monday and made the decision to pull out of the championships after a second medical examination on Wednesday.
“The entire year this 100-meter race in London was my focus,” De Grasse said in the statement. “I am really in the best shape of my life and was looking forward to competing against the best in the world.”
De Grasse was a leading contender in the 100- and 200-meter events at the worlds, which start Friday in London. He won bronze in the 100 and silver in the 200 at the 2016 Olympics in Rio.
The If I show up at a championships, I’m fully confident. My coach (Glen Mills) is confident and I’m ready to go. I’m fully confident, 100 percent. USAIN BOLT, Jamaican sprinter