By Miranda Mitchell, World-Track
BERLIN — Usain Bolt blasted to a new world record of 9.58 seconds to claim the men’s 100 metres at the world championships in Berlin on Sunday.
American Tyson Gay clocked a new personal best of 9.71 second for the silver medal with Asafa Powell taking third in 9.84.
"I know I was ready," said Bolt who improved his previous 9.69secs world record. "I knew if I execute my race I would have this race."
World renowned coach Glen Mills made a promise to the world a few days ago that Usain Bolt was in shape to deliver something special at the World Championships and his prophecy came to pass.
Bolt’s start was the biggest concerns heading into these championships, but as he progressed through the rounds, his block work slowly began to vanish.
The world was awaiting such a showdown between Bolt and American Tyson Gay and the Jamaican, who from the start said he would not be beaten delivered once again, just like he did at the Beijing Olympics last summer.
He won in a world record there and he repeated that performance to win by a handsome margin over Gay.
"He is phenomenal," Gay said. "I am happy, disappointed at not winning, but it took a world record to beat me.
"I ran a personal best and I am happy with that."
Bolt came into the race as the second fastest this season with a time of 9.79 behind Gay’s 9.77, but quickly showed he was just waiting on his time to land something big.
The Jamaican, who took the Beijing Olympics by storm last summer, winning three sprint golds all in world record times, had overcome a nervy semi-final in which he false started for the first-ever time.
Antigua and Barbuda’s Daniel Bailey, who trains with Bolt at the Racers Track Club in Kingston, was fourth in 9.94.
fantastic usain what a great champion, no doubt hes the greatest of all time, we are seeing something extra special in our lifetime, i pay my respects to tyson gay and asafa powell for a great race.
Competition done! Competition done! FANTASTIC PERFORMANCE, BOLT: congratulations GAY, RESPECT ASAFA !!
DAWIN, thanks for project BOLT, It GOT to Usain’s head…You are still in bed,dreaming!
Carl Lewis are you ready to realise that USAIN is just simply EXCELLENT.
Great stuff!This was just phenominal!!! Usain is KING.
How many things can you do in 9.58 SECONDS!!!! ? How many?
Respect to Gay and Powell for putting up decent competition…
WOW!!!!! the 100 meter final was even more exciting than the Olympics!! You have the 3 best sprinters in the world giving 100%!! Much respect to hard working folk!!!
I am living a dream what a race. I now have nuff respect for Mr. Gay and Mr. Powell. Please Carl Lewis just go detox from all the drugs you took in the 1980’s and just shut the hell up.
Three words for you….dope test them!
Super race by bolt! Tyson guy had no start! but you have to give Bolt the credit , it his time! If Gays start had been better, it could have easily been the other way around. One thing I will say about Tyson Gay, he an’t going anywhere! He’s not scared of Bolt. Gay did the best he could do.
Mike i think its time you stop making excuses for Tyson…The race was perfect because Bolt and Tyson got out equally and he got dusted. I just hate when ppl try to find all sort of excuses. Give it up, Tyson has already said his best was just not good enough to beat Bolt. Further more had Tyson put pressure on Bolt it would have only pushed him to run flat out and dust him even worse…Celebrate with the kid and stop talking about Tyson. His title his gone
I just have to say I am very proud of Asafa Powell you have done well
Mike, its simple. Gay lost to Bolt…and not by a whisker. The “IFs” don’t matter. We could all come up with those. We could all say “IF Bolt started even faster than he did, then he would have beaten Gay by 5m” , “IF
Mike, you’re wrong .Tyson gay started quicker than Bolt.
Tyson gay had a reaction time of 0,144 , Bolt 0,146 and Powell 0,134 .
Records come and go!
some of you guys are so down on gay!but none of you can`t run 9.71…all of the runners put in years of work! yeah it`s good for the sport but not for the soul because now your kicking a man in defeat! but it`s all good anyway great race bolt! tyson keep your head up dude! powell keep pushing! and thanks to all who ran…
Don, I don’t think anyone here would disagree that Tyson Gay is one of the top sprinters of all time.That’s a fact. I think a lot of the negative comments were responses to Mike’s posts…as responses to what SEEMS like his eternal hate for Bolt. The funny thing is us the fans would go out and kill each other, and yet Gay and Bolt shook hands to congratulate each other. Almost like politicians and their supporters 🙂
Can anyone say what happened to Dwain Chambers’ ‘Project Bolt’? I guess he’s still trying to figure out how to implement it!! To his credit he did did make the finals. Maybe if he had spent less time chatting and more time training for his project he would have been much better off.