Happy Birthday, Usain Bolt!
Posted by Jimmie R. Markham | August 20, 2008
Usain Bolt got the two best birthday presents a track & field athlete could possibly imagine: a world record and a gold medal. The 22 year old Jamaican (his birthday is actually tomorrow, but, since it’ll soon be tomorrow in Beijing, who’s counting?) did what was said couldn’t be done: he beat Michael Johnson’s 200m world record of 19.32 by 2/100ths of a second.
Before the race Johnson had speculated about the 200m final at a press conference, saying, "he has incredible leg speed and a long stride. That combination is deadly. But the 200m has another element which is speed endurance. What we don’t know is how long he can hold that speed. I don’t think his training at the moment has enough endurance for that. But eventually it will have and then I will be ready to kiss my record goodbye."
He improved on his PR of 19.67 seconds by a stunning 37/100ths of a second. Unlike the 100m final, during which he hammed it up for the last 15 meters of the race, he played it seriously this time, running through the line and even leaning at the tape.
Churandy Martina of Netherlands Antilles got the silver with a time of 19.82.
Wallace Spearmon was in last place coming out of the curve, but he passed 4 men and finished 3rd in 19.96. He had actually run a victory lap with Bolt and Martina before the DQ was announced for a lane violation. I’m sure Spearmon will protest.
Shawn Crawford is the bronze medalist for now with a time of 19.96, just beating out Walter Dix, who ran a time of 19.98.
Update: Martina has also been DQ’d for running out of his lane. Crawford trades up to silver and Dix gets his second bronze. Brian Dzingai of Zimbabwe has gone from 6th to 5th and now to 4th. If I were him, I’d be taking advantage of the seeming fluidity of these results by intently studying that race video, trying to figure how I could trade that 4th place finish to a place on the medal stand.
Topics: Blog, Olympic Games, Sprints/Hurdles |
August 21st, 2008 at 12:12 am
I read U.S. was the country that filed the petition to have Martina DQ for line violation. Notice it helped the U.S. go from one bronze to a silver and a bronze. I feel that unless Martina ran out of his lane to the point of affecting his place (cut so much off that he beat someone) or that he impeded another runner that the athletic officials should have allowed him to keep silver. I haven’t been able to see the race due to working late and NBC sucking, but I feel a little weird that the Americans were the ones who asked for the DQ.