Bolt’s warning: I’m to run under 19 seconds
KINGSTON: Six-times Olympic champion Usain Bolt has already started his preparations for next year’s Rio Games and has sent a warning to his competitors – he thinks he is capable of breaking 19 seconds in the 200 metres.
Bolt’s record of 19.19 seconds for the 200 has stood since August 20, 2009, four days after he set the 100m record of 9.58 seconds, both at the world athletics championships in Berlin.
“I really want to run under 19 seconds,” Bolt said from his training base at the University of West Indies in Kingston as he began preparations for next year’s Rio Olympics. “It’s one of my major goals.
“I think it’s one of the toughest ones, because it’s going to be hard to find the right day and the perfect race to get this (200m record).
“It will not be an easy task, but I personally feel I can do it and my coach (Glen Mills) thinks I can do it so it is just about the work and finding the perfect time to do it, so it is one of the things (for 2016).”
Bolt is seeking to become the first man to win three successive Olympic titles in the sprint events and the 4x100m relay in Rio.
The lanky Jamaican shrugged off a nagging pelvic injury this year to win three golds at the Beijing world championships in August, which included ending American Justin Gatlin’s almost two-year unbeaten run over both the 100-and-200 metres.
Gatlin has already said he feels he is closing the gap on his Jamaican competitor, having only lost the 100m final in Beijing by 0.01 seconds. Bolt won the 200 more comfortably.
“It’s one of the joys to go out there and to compete against the best because when you go out there and beat the best it shows that you are the greatest,” Bolt said in anticipation of facing Gatlin again next year.
“So, for me, I live to compete and I look forward to my team mate Yohan Blake coming back ... he’s been out for pretty much two seasons.”
The Jamaican, whose initial day of training was thwarted by rain, sounded a warning to Gatlin, Blake and anyone else considering trying to stop him at next year’s Olympics.
“Justin Gatlin says he’s coming but for me, I’m much more focused,” Bolt said.
“I’m starting the season in a much better shape than I did the last one, so it is only forward from here”. – Reuters FORMER Fifa secretary-general Michel Zen Ruffinen has been asked to stand for the presidency of soccer’s governing body and is studying the situation, he said. “I am simply studying the situation following some requests that I have received to be a candidate for the position,” the Swiss told Reuters. “I will monitor the situation, see how it develops in the next days and check the feasibility to see if it makes sense.” Zen Ruffinen, a former referee, did not say who had suggested he stand. He served as Fifa’s secretary general from 1998 to 2002 and left after falling out with Fifa president Sepp Blatter. Fifa are due to choose a successor to Blatter, who is now in his fifth mandate, at an extraordinary Congress on February 26.