Sprint king Bolt has an off-day in Ostrava, proving he is just ‘human’

SPRINTERS of the world, unite! Usain Bolt, the athlete who has galvanised the sport with a sensational series of world recordbreaking performances, can have an off-day.

The Jamaican, so solid on the track since his stunning rise to world fame when he set world bests in the 100m and 200m at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, had, in his words, an absolute shocker at the weekend.

In cold, blustery conditions and following a false start, Bolt staggered to victory in 10,04 seconds in Ostrava, a time virtually unheard of for the man who has dipped under the mythical 10second mark and, more tellingly, 9,8 on numerous occasions.

His performance was his “worst” since running 10 flat when winning in Toronto in a rainstorm in June 2009 — shortly before he went on to win double sprint gold in the Berlin world championships in the current world record times of 9,58 and 19,19 respectively.

The 25-year-old Bolt must be thankful he was not up against a classier field in the eastern Czech city. Veteran Kim Collins claimed second in 10,19 with American Darvis Patton third (10,22).

The race went wrong from the start, a shocking reaction time leaving Bolt last out of the blocks, with the 20 000-capacity crowd on their feet.

He then failed to muscle his way through his famed “drive” phase, the mid-race period when the Jamaican unfurls his imposing physique to its maximum, setting him on a fast flight to the finish.

“I haven’t run that badly since a meet in Canada. My coach will watch the race on Youtube and will tell me what I must do before Rome,” he said of his outing over 100m in the Diamond League meeting in the Italian capital later this week.

“I had no feeling at all in the race, no feeling. I went out of the blocks badly and then nothing came. The false start did not affect me, that’s no excuse. I’ll have to go back to the drawing board, talk to the coach. It was just a bad day, I have to get past it and look forward to the next one.”

Collins, the 36-year-old St Kitts and St Nevis sprinter who finished second, said the result showed that Bolt was merely “human”.

Compatriots Yohan Blake, who took the world 100m title in Daegu, Asafa Powell and the American duo Tyson Gay and Justin Gatlin, will be looking on with interest.

Bolt, who faces Powell in Rome, will be hoping his Ostrava outing was merely a blip on his way to more Olympic glory, denying that he had too many off-track demands from sponsors or found himself under too much pressure to perform. SAPA-AFP