Bolt targets Berlin treble

Usain Bolt will head to Berlin for the World Championships as a double world record holder and triple Olympic gold medal winner – but not as defending champion.

The Jamaican was the star performer in Beijing’s Bird’s Nest stadium last year as he lowered the 100 and 200 metre records and tasted a third victory in the 4x100m relay.

His feats dragged sprinting out of the gutter following the doping bans handed to Justin Gatlin – his predecessor as Olympic 100m champion – one-time world record holder Tim Montgomery and Britain’s own Dwain Chambers, even if the recent revelations five of his fellow countrymen tested positive for a banned substance again threaten to undermine the sport.

But while Bolt will rightly take to his blocks in the German capital’s Olympic Stadium as hot favourite to take the world sprint crowns – and the relay title with his Jamaica team – he may just find it a tougher ask than last year.

American Tyson Gay, whose medal hopes in Beijing were ruined by a hamstring injury, currently holds all three titles Bolt is after following his treble triumph in Osaka two years ago – and his form this year shows he will not relinquish them without one hell of a fight.

He can be sure, though, that is exactly what he will get from Bolt – and more.

The 22-year-old, whose arms-aloft celebration which started a full 30m out from the finish line as he acclaimed a 100m victory in 9.69 seconds was the most enduring image from the Beijing Games, has shown he is in similar shape this season.

Bolt has this season clocked 9.86secs at the Jamaican Championships, 9.79 at the Paris Golden League meeting and most recently 9.91 into a strong headwind at the Aviva London Grand Prix.

He eased down sharply as he finished well clear of an impressive field at Crystal Palace.

“I’m still at 85% and after this it’s all training, I’ve got two or three weeks of good training to put in so I guess I will be 100% by Berlin,” he said after that victory.

Ominous signs for anyone with aspirations of beating him – of whom only Gay can realistically claim to have any at all.

Asafa Powell, who lost his 100m world record in May last year as Bolt clocked 9.72 at the Grand Prix in New York in only his fifth race at the distance, looks a beaten man before the race even starts whenever he takes on his fellow Jamaican.

Gay, in contrast, is the fastest man over 100m this season after clocking 9.77 at the Rome Golden League meeting last month, on top of a wind-assisted 9.75 at the US trials.

Bolt and Gay have both avoided each other so far this season, but the Jamaican, laid back to the point of being horizontal, is not losing any sleep over the form of his biggest challenger.

“Personally, no disrespect to Tyson but that (breaking the 100m record) is going to be a hard task for him,” Bolt said winning the Jamaican title.

“Tyson is more of a 200 runner than a 100 runner so it is going to be very hard. He had a lot of [wind] assistance for that time (at the trials). It is going to be very hard for him.”

But the American is likely to find his task just as tough over 200m.

Bolt’s 100m success in Beijing may have grabbed the headlines, but his triumph over 200 was no less impressive as he broke Michael Johnson’s 12-year-old record, lowering the mark to 19.30.

Gay is also the faster of the two over the longer distance this season after clocking 19.58, the third fastest 200m time of all time.

Bolt, though, was just 0.01 slower at the Lausanne Grand Prix in Switzerland last month, arguably a better performance given the strong headwind and heavy rain.

But it will only be in Berlin where the two will be able to truly measure up and Bolt will aim to prove once and for all that Gay is more pretender than contender.