Opinion Bolt for gold

He may have taken a tumble courtesy a careless cameraman, but for the most part Usain Bolt has been on top of things this past week. Wins in the 100m and 200m at the Beijing World Championships have meant that since 2008, Bolt has won 16 of the 17 sprint gold medals on offer at the world and Olympic level. The sole blip occurred in the 2011 World Championships, after he had false-started in the final. He now has 10 golds at the World Championships — two more than Carl Lewis in second place — and he has the chance to add another in the 4x100m relay.

While Bolt’s dominance now seems assured, the king’s crown appeared to be slipping prior to the start of the championships. American Justin Gatlin, meanwhile, held the fastest time of the year in both sprint events. Bolt’s rivalry with Gatlin has been styled as a morality play: The rigorously tested but still resolutely clean Jamaican versus the American who has twice been banned for drug use. The likelihood of the former drug cheat becoming world champion would have been unpalatable for fans. In a sport racked by doping scandals, Bolt’s sprint double was the happy ending that athletics needed.

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And so, like in 2008, comes the obvious question — how fast can Bolt run the 200m? The man in question thinks he can break the 19-second barrier. Even for Bolt, though, it will be an unlikely accomplishment. At the 2009 Berlin World Championships, when he clocked the still-standing world record of 9.58 seconds in the 100m, Bolt had said he would try to get to the 9.4 mark. However, six years later, the Berlin record still stands. At the Olympics next year, when he will likely go for the mark, Bolt will be 30, long past a sprinter’s prime. On this front, at least, Bolt can take inspiration from the disgraced Gatlin. At 33, Gatlin is running faster than at any time in his career. If Bolt can come close to that, Rio will be something to watch out for.