Bolt could have run 9.52sec
2008-08-27 16:44
Zurich - Triple Olympic gold medallist and
world record holder Usain Bolt could have run the 100m in
9.52sec if he had not slowed to celebrate, his coach said
on Wednesday.
Glen Mills said Bolt, who electrified Beijing with his
sprint victories, was at the start of his 100 career and would
peak only in about two years' time.
"If he had continued, the slowest he would have run would
have been 9.52," Mills told reporters ahead of Friday's
Weltklasse athletics meeting in Zurich, where Bolt is due to run
the 100.
"This is his first year of running the 100 metres," Mills
said. "In two more years he should be peaking at this distance
and by then I am certain he will be down to there."
Bolt set a world record of 9.69 seconds in the 100, and was
so far ahead of the field that he slowed before the end to
celebrate.
Bolt then broke Michael Johnson's 12-year-old mark in the
200 and added a third gold by contributing to a world record for
Jamaica in the 4x100 relay.
On Friday, Bolt will face the two men who won medals behind
him in the Beijing 100, Richard Thompson of Trinidad & Tobago
and American Walter Dix.
Other Beijing winners on show in Zurich include women's pole
vault champion Yelena Isinbayeva and Kenenisa Bekele of
Ethiopia, who won the men's 5 000 and 10 000m.
"I've had some sleep since I've been here so I'm not tired.
I'm trying to get my blood pumping again," Bolt said.
He declined to speculate on what time he might run on
Friday.
"I don't think you can really set another goal after doing
that at the Olympics," said Bolt, who turned 22 the day after
his 200 Beijing win. "I'm just trying to get to the end of the
season, injury free, and go home and enjoy myself."