Bolt on Bolt

A week after showing that currently the only man who can upset his plans is he himself,Usain Bolt anchored Jamaica to a record-breaking 4x100m relay at the World Championships in Daegu. The Sunday before he was called for a false start in the 100m final,forcing the International Association of Athletics Federations to re-examine their new and stringent rule for disqualification. Such is the power today of Bolt,who once aspired to be a cricketer and who hummed and hawed about running the 100m in the Beijing Olympics almost to the moment he actually did and shredded the existing record. After sprints bad stretch of doping scandals and some of the guarded acclaim for Bolt draws from this background he has managed to re-position track as the main event.

This weekend too,Bolt ran the fourth fastest 200m in history,behind himself (Beijing 2008 and the 2009 World Championships at Berlin) and Michael Johnson (Atlanta Olympics). And then,he actually meditated on how he did not run his fastest he ran a technical race,he said,the lane wasnt ideal for him,he did not run a perfect corner. The message from Bolt is that the legend of Bolt will be written in the coming months,presumably concluding with the London Olympics.

The prospect is bracing. Because Bolt doesnt just attack world records,he crushes them,and he manages to find enough flaw in the record-breaking run to suggest further scope for improvement. Could that have been the problem with the 100m false start? Bolt,at 6 ft 5 in,is not the quickest of starters. He did say later that he was actually anxious. Howsoever he plans to rectify that,the coming year has just become that much more interesting.