Usain Bolt is the first ever Olympian to win 3 consecutive gold medals in 3 consecutive events at 3 editions of the Olympic Games! Congratulations! (Photo: Olympic)
. sport : Usain Bolt makes history and completes Olympics triple treble - 20 August 2016 - 15:05
Sprinter wins his ninth Olympic gold with victory in Rio 2016 relay
OLYMPICS. “There you go,” said Usain Bolt moments after the world watched him go supersonic for a final time in the Olympics. “I am the greatest.” Once again it was impossible to argue.
Usain Bolt is the first ever Olympian to win 3 consecutive gold medals in 3 consecutive events at 3 editions of the Olympic Games! Congratulations! (Photo: Olympic)
When the baton was slapped into his hand on the final leg of the men’s 4x100m relay, Jamaica, US, and Japan were in a line, all theoretically vying for gold. But then Bolt applied those familiar afterburners and blasted away from his opponents and towards the pages of history.
This was his third gold medal of these Games, his ninth overall at the Olympics. No wonder he savoured a super slow lap of honour, waving at every Jamaican flag in the Olympic Stadium and dancing with his team-mates, Asafa Powell, Nickel Ashmeade and Yohan Blake on the back straight.
“I am proud of myself and I have to say thanks to the guys,” said Bolt. “The pressure is real. I look at it as an accomplishment. I live for these moments, it is beautiful and I came through. I’ll go home, stay up late tonight talking and having fun. It is not real. It is a brilliant feeling. I told the guys if it didn’t happen tonight I would beat them up.”
Behind the Jamaicans, who finished in a time of 37.27 seconds, were Japan, who took a shock silver in 37.60. None of the Japanese team have personal bests under 10 seconds but their use of the underhand baton pass – rather than the more common upsweep method – made their changeovers far slicker than everyone else.
Canada were pushed up to the bronze medal position after the US team were disqualified. The Americans heard the news just as they finished their lap of honour.
It was actually the Canadians who alerted them to the DQ by their country’s name on the stadium scoreboard. Later it transpired that the baton change between Mike Rodgers and Justin Gatlin had been illegal. Said Gatlin: “It was the twilight zone. It was a nightmare. You work so hard with your team-mates, guys you compete against almost all year long. All that hard work just crumbles.”
Britain’s team of Richard Kilty, Harry Aikines-Aryeetey, James Ellington and Adam Gemili – who were without the injured James Dasaolu and CJ Ujah, who was surprisingly dropped - were a disappointing fifth in 37.98sec after struggling to cope with the very sharp bend in lane one.
“It’s not an excuse but it’s the truth it is more difficult in lane one,” said Ellington. “We genuinely believed we could go out there and win it or get a medal at worst and run our asses off and it was not meant to be. We know what we are capable of more so we are going to have to go back as a team and rebuild and get ready for London next year on our own terms and if we change it around then this will be forgotten.”
But this night was all about Bolt, who has had the crowds coming to the stadium for his Olympic farewell tour all week. As Blake put it afterwards: “Usain needs to be immortal and he is immortal, but I will encourage him to come back for 2020.”
Bolt’s long, poignant wave to the large throng of Jamaican supporters as he left the stadium suggested he has other ideas.
Sean Ingle in Rio de Janeiro
The Guardian
Saturday 20 August 2016 10.10 BST