Bolt seeking title in his final meet
expected, made it through safely to Saturday night, where he’ll run the semifinals and, if nothing crazy happens there, will be favored to win his fourth world title at 100 meters.
“The race overall was a poor start,” Bolt said. “I had to push myself a little to get back in the race. But overall, I’m glad I got to push myself, blow the cobwebs out. I’m feeling OK, but it wasn’t a great race.”
In truth, it looked like almost all of his 100-meter runs have over the years. He is 6-foot-5, more than a head taller than anyone else on the track and, as usual, he looked like a baby giraffe trying to gain his footing as he clambered out of the start.
“I just sat there small and tried to beat him at whatever point in the race I could beat him,” said Warren Fraser, a 5-foot-8 veteran from the Bahamas, who lined up to Bolt’s right and kept things even for the first 12 strides.
At 50 meters, Bolt started pulling ahead. At 75, he was looking to his left, where he saw nobody. At 90, he was shutting things down to coast to the finish line.
Bolt had some fun afterward, flashing the thumbsup sign to the crowd and toying with the hedgehog mascot, who played with the Jamaican’s shoes — one gold, one purple — before the champion headed off for his lengthy round of interviews.
Earlier in the week, he essentially guaranteed a win. Few could disagree, and when the man thought to be his best competition, Andre De Grasse of Canada, dropped out with an injury, the sentiment only grew. Among those who might challenge him include Jamaican teammate Yohan Blake, American Christian Coleman — who made a splash by sprinting 40 yards in 4.12 seconds, then posting video of it after the NFL draft — and Bolt’s longtime challenger, Justin Gatlin.
“Everybody wants to make that moment happen,” said Gatlin, who lost to Bolt by 0.01 seconds at worlds two years ago.
And though the seven men who will line up against the Jamaican star Saturday night may disagree, the only person who may be able to knock off Bolt is Bolt himself.
Is he firing on all cylinders?
“I didn’t get to run as smooth as I wanted, so I can’t really say,” he said. “But the fact I got back into the race real quick means I’m pretty much in decent form. Tomorrow, we’ll see how the semifinals go, and then I can really say what’s what.”