BERLIN — Usain Bolt crossed the finish line, saw his record-setting time on the clock and spread his arms as if he were soaring like a bird.
About all this guy can’t do is fly. And by saving his celebration until after the finish line this time, he showed how fast a man really can go on two feet.
The Jamaican shattered the world record again Sunday, running 100 meters in 9.58 seconds at the world championships to turn his much-anticipated race against Tyson Gay into a one-man show.
That was 0.11 seconds faster than the mark Bolt set last year at the Beijing Olympics — the biggest improvement in the 100-meter record since electronic timing began in 1968.
Gay, his closest rival, broke the American mark with his 9.71 performance and still looked like he was jogging — finishing a few big strides behind Bolt in second place.
Bolt’s only competition these days is the clock.
“I don’t run for world records,” said Bolt, who crossed the line, his yam-colored Pumas kicking high, with a slight breeze at his back.
Yet those records always seem to find him.
He thinks he can go lower.
“I know I said 9.4,” Bolt said, grinning. “You never know. I’ll just keep on working.”
The record came on the one-year anniversary of his 9.69 in Beijing, when Bolt shut his race down early, waving his arms and celebrating about 10 meters before he got to the line. Some, like Jacques Rogge of the International Olympic Committee, viewed it as a sign of bad sportsmanship. Most saw it as a welcome sigh of relief for a sport that needed some good news after years of doping and scandal.
A team
of four Norwegian scientists, including physicist Hans Eriksen, estimated Bolt could’ve gone about 9.55 if he’d run full out through the line in Beijing.
“He’s like a created game person,” American Darvis Patton said. “I can’t imagine going 9.71 and not winning.”
Before climbing into the blocks, Bolt gave spectators a quick wave and did his trademark bow-and-arrow pose.
That drew big applause.
Then the real show started.
Unlike the Olympics, when he skidded from the blocks, Bolt burst out this time, opening a sizable lead on the field after 20 meters.
From there, it could have been a stroll in the park. But there was no letting up this time.
This article has been corrected in this online archive. Originally, due to an error by The Associated Press, the source of an estimate that Usain Bolt
could have clocked about 9.55 seconds in the 100 meters if he had
not slowed before the finish line at the Beijing Olympics was incorrect. A team
of four Norwegian scientists, including physicist Hans Eriksen,
came to that conclusion.
