TOP class sprinting for Usain Bolt has become a hobby and a big entertaining show for the global watchers, who have been thrilled and treated with some of the best histrionics, theatrics and amazing speed since the 2008 Beijing Olympics when he eclipsed his own 100-metre world record with a time of 9.69 secs and followed up with a unique ‘double gold’ and ‘double world record’ in the 200 with 19.30 secs.
The world of high class sprinting changed for good and Bolt returned the following year and blitz the track in Berlin to register another world class double in the 100 and 200 metres with two new world records with 9.68 secs and 19.89 secs respectively during the 12th IAAF World Athletics Championships.
Those astonishing victories, coupled with the successes of compatriot’s Shelly Ann Fraser’s 100 double victories at Beijing and Berlin and Veronica Campbell-Brown’s Beijing 200 gold placed Jamaica firmly at the top of the sprinting kingdom.
Bolt, who was not fully recovered from a recent injury in 2010, lost his aura of sprinting invincibility when he was edged out by  American Tyson Gay in the 100, the only race he lost in what is considered a non-competitive year because of no major global championships.
However, much discussion was generated during the build-up to this year’s Daegu World Championships as to whether Bolt will regain the phenomenal speed his displayed in 2008 and 2009. He struggled in the early part of the season while Gay, Jamaicans Steve Mullings and Asafa Powell topped the speed charts with very fast times. And many felt that Bolt will be hard-pressed to retain his world titles.
Injuries to Gay and Powell and positive drugs results from Mullings forced their exit from the global showdown race. Only Trinidadian Richard Thompson, who clocked 9.85 secs at the T&T’s Senior Championships and had a slightly better time than Bolt’s 9.89, was the fastest among those entered for competition to be crowned world’s fastest human.
Undoubtedly, Bolt wants to remain the best and fastest athlete ever and has worked assiduously to regain top form and to be in with an excellent chance to successfully defend his world sprinting crowns. But he suffered the greatest shock of his international career with a disqualification for false start in the 100 metres final two Saturday ago.
His younger compatriot and training partner Yohan Blake, who was next to him in the grand finale, produced a season’s best of 9.92 secs to capture gold ahead of American Walter Dix (10.08) and veteran Kittitian Kim Collins (10.09).
Bolt wins 200 in fourth fastest time.
Bolt took his disappointment in the 100 false-start elimination like a true champion and returned to the track yesterday and produced another sizzling half-lap blitz to clock 19.40 secs, the fourth fastest ever time clocked for the 200 metres. He was followed home by American Walter Dix and European champion Christophe Lemaitre with times of 19.70 secs and 19.80, the three fastest for the season.
Bolt became the world leader for the year and only former American record holder Michael Johnson at third position, with 19.32 separates, Bolt’s three fastest times in the all-time leaders’ list.
Bolt is the most likeable and most marketable sportsman on the planet and he holds centre-stage with the top two times with his world record performances at Beijing (19.30 secs) and Berlin (19.19 secs, the current world record).
In yesterday’s race, the 24-year-old did not react quickly to the starter’s pistol and calculated his move at the right time to pull away from Dix on his right shoulder, whom he looked at fleetingly on the curve before surging home and embellished his name into the annals of world track and field history. He successfully defended his 200-metre crown in fine style and in the process restored his reputation as the world’s greatest sprinter of all-time.
His victory came after Veronica Campbell-Brown also won the half-lap race in commanding fashion.
Two-time bronze queen became ‘golden’.
Shelly Ann Fraser-Price was dethroned by American Carmelita Jeter who won the women’s 100-metre title with a 10.90 secs timing. She got home ahead of the fast-finishing Veronica Campbell-Brown (10.97) who pipped Trinidadian Kelly Ann Baptiste (10.98) for the silver. Fraser-Price had to settle for fourth position with 10.99.
I had mentioned in my preview article that the race for medals would be among the four with Jeter holding the edge over Campbell-Brown and Baptiste to medal. The prediction, like many others in those previews, materialised. (Check brijparasnath.blogspot.com)
I suggested that Campbell-Brown had to be quick out the blocks to beat Jeter, but unfortunately, she was too slow and had too much to do to catch the strong finishing American who had been the most dominant force for the past two seasons.
Baptiste, 24, demonstrated good maturity and maintained her consistency for 2011 season to become Trinidad and Tobago’s first female sprint medallist. T&T’s Josanne Lucas collected bronze in the 400-metre hurdles at the Berlin 2009 championships. Both athletes hail from Tobago.
Jeter was twice bronze medallist at Osaka 2007 and Berlin 2009 and holds the record second fastest time of all women sprinters in the history of international athletics. The 31-year-old had clocked 10.64 secs at Shanghai in 2009 and proved that age is no factor in being the best in the world by holding off the late challenge of Campbell-Brown and the much improved Baptiste.
Jeter’s compatriot Shalonda Solomon had returned the season’s fastest 200-timing when she posted 21.15 at Eugene, Oregon on June 26 compared to the newly-crown 100-metre champion’s  22.20 at Monaco on July 22.
Campbell-Brown copped her third global 200-metre crown after she had won Olympics gold in 2004 at Athens and in 2008 at Beijing. And like at the 2007 Osaka Worlds when she won the 100-metre gold and 200-silver, she switched them around on this occasion.
The 200-metres race was no different between these two great adversaries but on Friday last, Campbell-Brown gained sweet revenge and reversed the positions when she won the metric-furlong in her season’s best time of 22.22 secs. This was the one sprinting gold missing from her ‘Golden Trophy Cabinet’ and to beat Jeter when she has enjoyed her best season ever tells of the sprinting prowess of the 29-year-old Trelawney-based Jamaican.
At Osaka and Berlin, VCB was beaten by American Allyson Felix in the 200 metres. Felix relinquished her crown to the Jamaican and was also denied gold in the 400 when she attempted a unique 400-200 double.
Despite her season’s best of 49.59 secs  in the 400, Felix was relegated to second by Botswana’s new en Girl” Amantle Montsho who powered home in 49.56, a new national record and the first-ever medallist at a global meet for the small African-nation.
Campbell-Brown took her overall World Championships medals tally to eight and should add one more precious medal today when the Jamaican sprint relay team defend their title in the penultimate race of the nine-day meet that attracted athletes from a record 202 countries.
Jamaica’s first global sprint medallist Merlene Ottey holds the record with most World Championship medals with a cabinet decorated with 14 in all.
With Bolt’s 200-metre gold added to Blake 100-metre gold and Campbell-Brown’s 200-metre gold, Jamaica retains the title as the ‘Sprint Capital’ of the world.
Caribbean pride was further boosted during the week when Grenada’s teenage sensation Kirani James dethroned American LaShawn Merritt in the 400-metre race. James clocked 44.60 secs to edge out Merritt (44.63) who was rushed back into competition following his two-year suspension for using banned drugs during the 2009 season.
He had his sentence reduced by the international Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) to 21 months so as to allow him to race again at the Worlds and I was one of those who were hoping and praying for James to beat the confirmed ‘druggie’, who, like his detestable breed, has absolutely no shame for his wrongdoings.
Merritt was banned for a substance found in a male enhancement product. Well, the story is a nice one in that a boy from the Spice Isle of Grenada spiced up his life and career with a gold medal while the man who claimed to have used the enhancement product was put in his place for his cheating ways. What an episode and wonderful inspiration for the younger generation in the Caribbean!
These bright rising stars have created a ‘Golden Glow’ on the global stage and that augurs well for next year’s London Olympics.