Bolt sends out 200m warning with easy 20.39 win

The morning after collecting his 100m gold in the Olympic Stadium, Usain Bolt reverted to his finest showman mode at the start line of the 200m preliminaries, offering his 80,000 disciples an extravagant version of his trademark lightning bolt pose.

Then, shaking off the cobwebs, he made a decent start and coming off the bend started dawdling down the straight while still keeping his first round pursuers, including fine performers like Brazilian Aldemir Da Silva and American Isiah Young at bay. Only he could make a win in 20.39 seconds, aided by a 0.9m/sec following wind on a chilly morning, look so simple.

“I love my 200”. This, he wanted to remind us, is his territory, an event he has lost only one final in five years. The defeat by his Jamaican teammate Yohan Blake in the recent Jamaican trials has offered him another spur to put the pretender in his place.