Bolt denies throwing chief rival out of race
Jamaican refutes claims De Grasse was ejected Canadian says sprinter fears farewell defeat
Usain Bolt’s management has refuted suggestions that the Jamaican had Canada’s Andre De Grasse “booted out” of tomorrow’s Monaco Diamond League 100 metres race after reports that the eight-time Olympic champion was running scared of his younger rival.
De Grasse, who won 100m bronze and 200m silver behind Bolt at last year’s Rio Olympics, has been tipped as a natural successor to the Jamaican. He is due to appear in Monaco – where Bolt will run 100m – but only as part of a 4x100m team, thus avoiding a head to head with the world record holder.
“We were in the [100m] race. We got booted out. That’s all on Bolt,” De Grasse’s coach Stuart Mcmillan was quoted as saying in the Canadian media. “Let’s just say he wanted not such an elite field against him.
“The fastest guy in the world gets to choose the field. But I don’t blame him at all. This is his last year, he’s only raced twice. I understand that he doesn’t want to increase the pressure prior to the Worlds by going in with a potential loss. If anyone deserves the right to choose the field, it’s Bolt.”
However, Bolt’s management told The Daily Telegraph that it had no role in De Grasse’s exclusion from the race or the make-up of the field. Bolt has raced only twice over 100m in his final season, looking sluggish on both occasions, with victories over weak fields in 10.03sec in Kingston, Jamaica, and 10.06sec in Ostrava, Czech Republic. However, even without De Grasse, he faces a big step up in Monaco for his last race before next month’s London World Championships. The South African Akani Simbine has broken 10sec eight times this year, while the field also contains Britain’s Chijindu Ujah – who ran 9.98sec to win the Rabat Diamond League last week – and four other sprinters who have dipped below 10 seconds.
Asked yesterday whether he feared anyone in particular ahead of his last major championships, Bolt replied: “The youngsters who are coming up are doing great. But I’m never worried about any one athlete because I know what I’m capable of.”
Having struggled with a back problem in his most recent run in Ostrava, Bolt also insisted he would be fine to defend his world title in London, although he admitted the injury was “not perfect”.