ATHLETICS:USAIN BOLT is 1.95m (six foot four inches) and 21. No holder of the 100 metres world record has been so tall or so young in the modern era but the Jamaican might have done more than just take sprinting into a new age in New York on Saturday night
Bolt's blistering run of 9.72 seconds to beat the old mark of 9.74 by his compatriot Asafa Powell arrived on a track moistened by rain at a meeting which had been delayed because of the threat of thunder and lightning. The 100m, it seems, cannot escape its dark clouds.
At the end of last week the controversial sprint coach Trevor Graham was found guilty in court on one charge of lying about his links to a drugs supplier. On Friday Justin Gatlin, once the proud occupant of the title now held by Bolt, will learn if he has won his latest appeal against a doping ban.
In between comes a performance from an athlete whose run will no doubt raise eyebrows because of the sham created by so many who have hurtled down the track before him with the aid of performance-enhancing substances.
If an event ever needed cleansing, this is it and Bolt could be the man to do it. He has arrived at this stage after a junior career which created its own landmark and his strength, astonishing leg-muscle movement and towering ambition have never been in doubt.
His progression has seen him make such an impact at the 100m in the past four weeks that he will take some stopping at the Olympics in Beijing in less than three months' time. "This world record doesn't mean a thing unless I get the Olympic gold medal or win at the World Championships," said Bolt, who clocked 9.76 in Kingston, Jamaica, at the start of May and, in the build-up to this 100m, revealed he had been tested five times this year and has never used performance-enhancing substances.
Something special was half expected at this grand prix on a small track at the Icahn Stadium on Randall's Island to the east of Manhattan as Bolt met the world champion, Tyson Gay. But even the meeting organisers could never have imagined, when they arranged a post-event reggae concert for the 6,000 fans, that the vast number of Jamaicans among them would have such reason to party.
Bolt looked in a different class after the runners were called back at 20m after an initial false start. He made a fine start and his powerful leg reach and thumping steps took him clear at 50m. Bolt was never going to be caught, leaving Gay, the gold medallist from Osaka last summer, second in 9.85 and his American team-mate Darvis Patton third in 10.07.
"I knew the track was fast," said Gay. "I knew a 9.7 was possible. This is definitely great for the sport. Obviously I have some work to do."
EVOLUTION OF 100m RECORD
Time Name Nat Date
10.6: Donald Lippincott (US)6.7.1912
10.4: Charles Paddock (US) 23.4.21
10.3: Percy Williams (Can) 9.8.30
10.2: Jesse Owens (US) 20.6.36
10.1: Willie Williams (US) 3.8.56
10.0: Armin Hary (W Ger) 21.6.60
9.95: Jim Hines (US) 14.10.68
9.93: Calvin Smith (US) 3.7.83
9.92: Carl Lewis (US) 24.9.88
9.90: Leroy Burrell (US) 14.6.91
9.86: Lewis 25.8.91
9.85: Burrell 6.7.94
9.84: Donovan Bailey (Can) 27.7.96
9.79: Maurice Greene (US) 16.6.99
9.77: Asafa Powell (Jam) 14.6.05
9.74: Powell 9.9.07
9.72: Usain Bolt (Jam) 31.5.08
