1-2-3 for Jamaica in 200M - Bolt is the King again

After the much expected 100M – it was Men’s 200M finals and it was Usain Bolt again…. –the problem with Legends is that the expectation of the people builds up expecting them to outperform themselves everytime.   Bolt won in style but not a World Record – it was the 4th fastest and of the 3 in front, it was Bolt himself twice and running mate Yohan Blake once.  Bolt still has one race to go in London, the men's 4x100-meter relay, but he has successfully defended both his 100-meter and 200-meter titles from Beijing.

Bolt won both the 100 and 200 — in world record times — in Beijing four years ago.  The 25-year-old's victory meant he bettered the record of US track legend Carl Lewis, who won three golds and a silver in the sprints at the 1984 and 1988 Games.  Bolt led a Jamaican clean sweep of the podium, with training partner Yohan Blaketaking silver in 19.44sec and Warren Weir claiming a shock bronze in 19.84sec.  Usain Bolt, the magic runner has five Olympic Gold Medals now, and a sixth is likely in the relay.

Usain Bolt sprinted into Olympic history Thursday, becoming the first man to win the 100-200 double at consecutive games. Bolt slowed up crossing the line as he led a Jamaican 1-2-3 in the men’s Olympic 200 meters at the Olympic Stadium, raising his finger to his lips in what looked like a failed attempt to silence the 80,000-strong crowd’s deafening roar.  “I’ve done something that no one has done before, which is defend my double title,” Bolt said. “Back-to-back for me, I would say I’m the greatest.”  His opponents weren’t about to disagree.  “The guy is just on another planet right now,” said fourth placed Wallace Spearmon.

Running in lane seven, Bolt was up on Weir outside him within five paces after an explosive start. As he rounded the bend, Blake briefly threatened from lane four, but teeth clenched, eyes on the big screen and at full tilt, Bolt had enough to slow down a full 10 metres from the line, raising his finger to his lips as he did so.  He has  won six titles in the seven individual events in which he has competed, his one faltering coming when he was disqualified at Daegu world championship 100m final last year after a false start.

You know of Bolt and of Yohan Blake as well, but after Asafa Powell pulled up in 100M, the man little known gave them the 1-2-3 finish – it was Warren Weir (1989) another Sprinter from Jamaica, who specializes in 200 meters.  At the Jamaican Olympic Trials in 2012, Weir ran a personal best of 19.99 seconds in the 200 m semi final.   Yesterday  he ran 19.84 to finish for the Bronze only behind fellow Jamaican sprinters and Bolt and Blake

In the race worth watching many a times, Blake found that Bolt had had a better start but still challenged with a personal best of the season @ 19.44 sec – probably his all time best of 19.26 could have pipped Bolt. 

Here are the fastest 200M of all time :

•        Usain Bolt - 19.19 secs (2009)

•        Yohan Blake - 19.26 secs (2011)

•        Usain Bolt - 19.30 secs (2008)

•        Usain Bolt - 19.32 secs (2012)

•        Michael Johnson - 19.32 secs (1996)

•        Usain Bolt - 19.40 secs (2011)

And here is the performance chart of 200M Finals at Olympics 2012

Rank	Nation	Athlete	Timing
1	Jamaica	Usain Bolt	19.32
2	Jamaica	Yohan Blake	19.44
3	Jamaica	Warren Weir	19.84
4	USA	Wallace Spearmon	19.90
5	Nederlands	Churandy Martina	20.00
6	France	Christophe Lemaitre	20.19
7	Equador	Alex Quinonez	20.57
8	South Africa	Anaso Jobodwana	20.69

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

Photos courtesy : http://www.london2012.com