Johnson questions Bolt bid for four Olympic golds

Former Olympic champion Michael Johnson has cast doubt on Usain Bolt’s plans to win four gold medals in next year’s Olympic Games in London.

Bolt will defend his 100 metres, 200m and 4x100m relay titles in 2012 and said on Saturday he would also like to compete in the 4x400m relay.

That would make the 25-year-old the first man to win four gold medals in track and field at one Olympics since Carl Lewis in 1984, but Johnson is highly sceptical.

“You can’t train for the 400 [as well], it would be an absolute distraction and the training wouldn’t work,” Johnson told BBC Radio 5 live.

“I think he could be the world-record holder at 400 metres but he’s said that he has no interest in training for it, which I can understand – it’s a difficult race to train for.

“I see no reason why he shouldn’t be able to repeat as an Olympic gold medallist in the 100m, 200m and the 4x100m, but the 4x400m is going to be tough.

“Without him the Jamaican team certainly doesn’t have enough 400m runners to beat the United States. They could beat the US possibly with him on the team if he was training for the 400m, but he can’t just step onto the track and run a 44 or a 43-second split just off 100 and 200m training.

“I don’t see that happening. I don’t see the Jamaican coaching staff putting him on the 4x400m relay unproven. That means he’s got to go out there and run some 400s during the season, in order to prove that he should be on that relay.”