Bolt: If there is one thing I would have liked ...

othing.” That’s what nine-time Olympic champion Usain Bolt says he is likely to be doing this time next year, but as it stands, it will come with knowing that he has missed out on an important target – running below 19 seconds in the 200m.

“I’m pretty much looking forward to doing nothing, just knowing that for the rest of my life I don’t have to go to train- ing and anything like that. That I don’t have to go to the track unless I really want to go, that’s what I am looking forward to,” he told reporters in Monte Carlo yesterday.

Bolt says he has basically given up on lowering his own 19.19-second 200m world record. It’s a large reason behind his decision to only focus on the 100m in his farewell season in 2017, with the sprinter, while noting that it’s not an obsession, accepting that he does stand a better chance of testing his 100m mark of 9.58 seconds before he calls it a day.

Since setting the double world records at the World Championships in Berlin in 2009, Bolt has only come comparatively close once in the 100m – his 9.63 win at the London Olympic Games, with his best 200m time since then being 19.32 also recorded at London 2012.

“I wouldn’t say it’s a regret, but not breaking 19 seconds is probably the only thing that I missed out on. It wouldn’t be a regret because no one thought I would run 19.19 – not even me – so it was something that was possible, and I missed out on that.”

Bolt noted that not testing the record despite his best efforts at this year’s Olympics in Rio de Janeiro provided the clearest indication yet, that it was unlikely to happen again.

“After last season, I kind of figured out no matter how hard I work, at this point, it’s going to be hard to get the 200m world record right now, plus it’s a lot more work. For me, coming to the end of my career, I am not trying to do more work than I have to do,” he said.