success at the Rio Games
Usain Bolt secured a second gold with victory in the 200m on Thursday
The 200m was Jamaican's last individual event at any Olympic Games
He has proven himself to be unquestionably first among Olympic names
Behind the party demeanour, there is a serious and disciplined athlete
Even Rio's lethargic crowds wanted to catch Bolt while they still could
By Jonathan McEvoy for the Daily Mail
It passed in a vivid blur, but it was a moment to burn on to the memory. For on Thursday night in 19.78 seconds, the world’s greatest sprinter performed his final miracle in his favourite event.
With victory in the 200 metres, Usain Bolt has now done the sprint double at Beijing, through London, to Rio de Janeiro.
Even the rain abated as the finallists stepped out. Bolt wiggled his eyebrows and wriggled his shoulders on the start, as the crowd went mad. The champion was away smartly, clear on the bend, and then moving into the distance. His victory over Andre De Grasse was 0.24sec. Easy enough.
But three days short of his 30th birthday and sated by every record, the great Jamaican is edging away from us. This was his last individual race at any Olympic Games. He is due to compete at the World Championships in London next year, but he is only ‘going to do the 100 metres and that is it’.
Christophe Lemaitre took bronze, a heartbreaking fraction of a second ahead of Britain’s Adam Gemili, who ran the race of his life.
As Bolt danced and joked in celebration in an arena rocking with delight, he stood not merely high in the pantheon of supreme Olympic names but unquestionably first among them all.
Eighty years after Jesse Owens won this event with a run of 20.70sec, we can safely make that claim. Bolt’s longevity marks him out — and to think he has run this fast for so long carrying his sport on his shoulders.
He said beforehand that the 200m reduces him to nerves, possibly because it is the discipline he feels is his best, where he demands most of himself. It was, after all, at the longer distance that he announced himself as a youngster. From his high school championships medal in 2001 to the World Junior title a year later. To dominance on the most exalted stage.
He had talked beforehand of beating the world record — the one he set in Berlin seven years ago at 19.19sec.
That was always going to be a tough ask. His body, afflicted by a chronic back problem, has always needed careful nursing.
The questions are asked annually. Will his body give up on him? Can anyone exploit his aging frame?
The answers are always emphatically the same, and it is perhaps the careful husbanding of his natural resources that is the greatest explanation of his enduring talent.
Behind the image of a partying jack the lad lies a very serious athlete, one who knows precisely how to get the best out of himself. And if he ever thought of letting himself down he would have to face the disapproval of ‘Coach Mills’, his deep-voiced father figure whose word is writ.
Bolt’s progress to the final was serenely easy. He won his semi-final only by the width of a chest hair but he was jogging the last 50 metres and crossed the line laughing with Andre De Grasse. Bolt then wagged his finger at the 21-year-old as if to say, ‘You can’t beat me’.
‘I don’t know what he was trying to do,’ said Bolt of the young man’s chutzpah, with a smile. ‘He’s a young kid. He has a lot of talent.’
Nobody has managed to beat Bolt over half a lap since the World Championships in Osaka nine years ago, when he took the silver medal. He was not going to surrender his invincible record here. Really Bolt was running against the ticking clock, in more senses than one.
Just as it has been off track. If his status were in any doubt, who do you think is stopped for more selfies by fellow Olympians? Who has been handed his own suite in the athletes’ village?
Even some international journalists sought him out downstairs in the stadium afterwards for photos and videos.
Looking around the stadium, one could see it was filling out dramatically as the evening wore on. Where there had been the usual paucity of spectators for the decathlon earlier in the night, the place was virtually packed by the time Bolt walked on. Even Rio’s lethargic crowds wanted to catch the big man while they could.
