Usain Bolt is the man….. again!
Against the odds, Usain Bolt took gold yet again as he beat Justin Gatlin to take the men's 100m world title in Beijing.
Usain Bolt once again reminded everybody why he is the greatest sprinter in history as he beat Justin Gatlin by 0.01 seconds to win the men’s 100m world title in Beijing, and making everybody ask once again…. why did we ever doubt him?
It could have all been so different however earlier in the evening when Bolt almost stumbled out of his blocks in the semi-finals, qualifying for the final by the skin of his teeth in a time of 9.96. His American rival Gatlin by contrast blitzed his semi-final in a time of 9.77, and all signs seemed to be pointing towards Gatlin taking gold in the final.
We should have all learnt long ago though that when it really matters, Bolt always comes up with the goods. Despite Gatlin getting his customary excellent start in the final, the Jamaican world record holder ran down his rival to sneak into gold-medal position in a time of 9.79. Gatlin in the end ran slightly slower in the final than he did in the semi-final.
Canadian Andre De Grasse and American Trayvon Bromell both took bronze as they clocked identical times of 9.92.
Bolt’s win will surely earn a huge sigh of relief from the IAAF, who would have known how much of a PR disaster it could have been if Gatlin, who has had TWO drug bans in the past, had taken gold. They can now rest easy, knowing that the biggest name in the sport has done it again when he was needed most.
There was also great news for Britain as Jessica Ennis-Hill took gold in the Heptathlon, having only returned to competitive action earlier this year after giving birth to son Reggie. She ended up finishing over a hundred points ahead of pre-event favourite Brianne Theisen-Eaton of Canada, with Laura Ikauniece-Admidina of Latvia taking bronze.
It was a different story for fellow Brit Katarina Johnson-Thompson however. Having finished day one in second place behind Ennis-Hill, the 22 year-old Scouser then proceeded to foul on all three of her attempts in the Long Jump, her strongest event, meaning she scored zero points in that discipline, therefore dropping her to the back of the pack. Victory for Ennis-Hill though means that Great Britain have won two golds from the opening two days of the World Athletics Championships after Mo Farah took gold in the men’s 10,000m on Saturday.
This day though belonged to Usain Bolt, who now has nine world championship golds to his name, and nobody will bet against him adding to that tally when he takes to the track again for the 200m, the final of which will be on Thursday.
