It’s double delight for legend Bolt
While millions would already consider Bolt a legend for winning triple gold in Beijing and defending his 100m title here on Sunday, the Jamaican insisted he also had to retain his 200m title to achieve such status.
And the 25-year-old did precisely that with another imperious performance, leading a Jamaican clean sweep ahead of 100m silver medallist Yohan Blake and Warren Weir, both still only 22 years of age.
Bolt’s winning time of 19.32 seconds was outside his own world record of 19.19 which he felt might be a possibility, but he said he knew coming out of the bend it was not to be.
After sealing the double-double, Bolt said: “This is what I wanted and I got it. I’m very proud of myself. I had a rough season, I came out here and I did what I had to do.
“We’ve been working hard all season. We pushed ourselves, we pushed each other and we’re happy.”
Asked if he could have had a world record, Bolt added: “I think it was possible... but I guess I wasn’t fit enough. I was fast but I wasn’t fit enough.
“I came off the corner, I could feel the strain on my back a little bit so I was trying to keep my form, but I stopped running because I knew it wasn’t going to be a world record. When I came off the corner I could feel it.
“It was hard. I really dedicated [myself] to my work, I know what London meant to me. I came here and I gave it my all and I’m proud of myself. I didn’t get a world record — I really wanted to do it in the 200m — but I’m happy.”
Blake said: “Usain Bolt has been motivating me all season. Everything has been going good so far.”
Third-placed Weir added: “It’s a great honour to come here and do what the country wanted, to get the top three.
“The love in London is very, very good.”
The defence of his double sprint title certainly puts him into rarefied territory in the pantheon of Olympic greats.
Up there with Jesse Owens who lifted four golds in the 100m, 200m, sprint relay and long jump in the 1936 Games and up there with Carl Lewis, too, universally renowned as the greatest Olympian of all time with nine gold medals over four Olympics but who never successfully defended both sprint titles.
Meanwhile, Carli Lloyd was the United States’ Olympic hero again last night as they avenged their World Cup final defeat by Japan and took gold at Wembley.
Lloyd’s brilliant two goals were enough for the USA to complete a hat-trick of Olympic titles, as she added to her winner in the 2008 final.
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