One Jamaican can hide another. Eight months after his compatriot Asafa Powell, who clocked a stunning 9.74 in Rieti (Italy), young (21) Usain Bolt has shaken the 100m world by giving himself the world record in the discipline in 9.72, on the storm-soaked track of New York's Icahn Stadium.
Under the eyes of a crowd firmly on his side (the Big Apple has a large yardie community), the giant (1.96m) from Trelawny (north) flew through the race, relegating American world champion Tyson Gay, 2nd in 9.85, to the role of a foil.
The feat is enormous, almost unreal, when you consider that “Lightning Bolt” (the English pun being that lightning is called “a bolt of lightning”), a specialist and terror of the 200m, was making only his fifth appearance in competition in athletics' blue-riband event.
On 3 May, the child prodigy of Jamaican “track and field”, world junior champion over 200m in 2002, had already shown off his incredible talent by posting a promising 9.76 in Kingston.
“Usain the Great” will thus be awaited at the Beijing Olympics (8-24 August), where he has promised to do the “double”, that is, line up in both the 100m and 200m. The all-Jamaican duel between “Afasta” Powell and “Thunder” Bold, with Tyson Gay as referee, promises to be red hot.