The Daily Telegraph - Sport

Adoring nation prepare to bid Bolt farewell

Legend runs for last time on home soil with fans loving him as much for his humility as his talent

- Ben Bloom ATHLETICS CORRESPOND­ENT in Kingston, Jamaica

Written large on a whiteboard at the Spartan Health Club entrance in Kingston, the weekly class timetable is nothing short of a comprehens­ive fitness matrix. For dancers, there are burlesque and Zumba classes; for muscle men, there are abs and sculpt sessions; and, for the fastest man ever, there are spin and step sessions.

Usain Bolt was just 15 years old when he first set foot inside this building, wide-eyed and awestruck. Raised in the backwater village of Sherwood Content, for Bolt, the vast capital-city gym was a world away from anything he had experience­d.

“He was just fascinated looking around at the machines,” Steve Ming, one of the gym’s personal trainers, told The Daily Telegraph, as he recalled the adolescent Bolt, lanky and awkward in his overdevelo­ped teenage body. “He has since worked his way to the front of the classes.

“At the step class he started out at the back, but now he’s moved forward. For the cardio class he knows he’s a pro at it so he’ll be all the way at the front.”

Fifteen years on, the gym – like the rest of Kingston and, indeed, all of Jamaica – is now Bolt’s manor. He is king.

Not since Bob Marley has one person done as much to improve the Caribbean island’s global reputation and its people are clearly grateful.

That can be seen in the sea of gold and green that adorns the stands whenever Bolt steps on to an athletics track and it will be in abundance tonight when 30,000 fill the National Stadium to pay tribute to him at a “Salute to a Legend” meeting that will mark his final run on home soil before impending retirement.

Bolt is a nation’s hero. But, away from the public arena, there is a paradox at play. “People in Jamaica, we love him so much,” says Soyini Phillips, the gym’s front desk manager. “But it’s like a ‘yardie’ thing – people respect him but they don’t go crazy over him. It becomes normal to us. When he comes in here, we all know it’s Usain Bolt, but we allow him to work out. He’s so cool with everybody.”

Just a couple of miles from the gym – past the stray goats and colourful roadside shacks selling fruit and vegetables – it is a similar story at the restaurant bearing Bolt’s name. Located in a soulless Kingston food court, Usain Bolt’s Tracks and Records is a homage to the country’s favourite son.

A gaudy sports bar serving a mix of local fare and generic internatio­nal cuisine, the restaurant does not so much pay tribute to the sprinter as ram his every accolade down your throat.

His record-breaking performanc­es play on video loop at each table, a Bolt voice-over invites you “into my yard” and a shop peddles everything from replica Jamaica running shirts to a Bolt-endorsed razor – ‘Feel like a champion’.

Yet even here, in a gauche, Las Vegas-style world of makebeliev­e divinity, the man in question adopts no airs and graces. “He’s like a friend,” says waitress Dajah Dodd. “There is a VIP bit but he mixes himself with the locals and doesn’t think he’s better than anyone else. He’s just a regular guy and everyone loves him because of that. And he’s fast.”

Those legs do not turn as quickly as they once did though and, despite protests from his coach, retirement is on the horizon after the World Championsh­ips in London this August.

It was little surprise to hear Olivia Grange, Jamaica’s sports minister, plead with him to rethink his retirement plans this week, before changing tack and suggesting he “settle down, start a family and make some little Bolts”.

Like so many others, Grange was quick to acclaim not only Bolt’s achievemen­ts on the track, but his manner away from it.

“He is just a special human being,” she told The Telegraph. “He has a dynamic personalit­y and he is awesome in how he performs and yet so humble. It is almost as if he is above everything else, but his feet are firmly planted on the ground.”

As they do every time their hometown hero runs, the inhabitant­s of Sherwood Content will gather in the middle of the village tonight, among the freeroamin­g cows, and watch Bolt’s final Jamaican race on an outdoor screen.

Seventy miles from Kingston, his old teachers will tell tales of how they helped to set him on the path to greatness and, just as importantl­y, keep him humble.

To millions worldwide, Bolt is the ultimate showman. But as Ming insists, to those who come across him: “He is just a normal person.”

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 ??  ?? Humble roots: (top) Kingston’s National Stadium, the venue for the ‘Salute to a Legend’ meeting; (above) young fans strike Usain Bolt’s celebratio­n
Humble roots: (top) Kingston’s National Stadium, the venue for the ‘Salute to a Legend’ meeting; (above) young fans strike Usain Bolt’s celebratio­n
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