Usain Bolt: 100m Cayman, Ostrava, Rio

The current World and Olympic champion, Usain Bolt, said he was “race rusty” after his season opener of 10.05 in the Cayman Islands and added that he needed more races to sharpen up.  He hoped that he would silence the doubters in Ostrava, Czech Republic with a 9.8 clocking.

The 29-year-old Jamaican knows that if he is to win at the 2016 Olympics in Rio, then it is important that he runs a quick time early on to put off the pressure from his closest rival Justin Gatlin who recorded the five fastest 100m times in 2015 but lost the 100m world title in spectacular fashion with a premature dip at the line.

Going into the championships, it seemed like it was Gatlin’s race to lose, though Bolt fans will point out that Gatlin had peaked prematurely, with a 9.77 in the semi-finals of the 2015 World Championships, a mark which would have been enough to have beaten Bolt’s 9.79 gold medal finish in Beijing’s National Stadium.

Despite Bolt’s scrappy semi-final victory at the last World Championships, he remained unscathed by Gatlin’s scintillating performance and remarked that “he’s (Gatlin) always impressive through the rounds.” Hence, at this early stage of the season, there was little reason for the Bolt camp to be worried.

At tonight’s Golden Spikes Meet, Bolt did not get the 9.8 he had wanted, but nonetheless it was a routine victory in 9.98 into a slight -0.4 headwind and pulling away from Ramon Gittens of Barbados in second position who came in at 10.21 seconds. The lightning Bolt looked comfortable and composed, but it may take stiffer competition before Bolt can find that 9.8 pace.

Currently, Qatar’s Femi Ogunode leads the way at 9.91 seconds in the 100m and arch rival, American Justin Gatlin as well as Bolt’s Jamaican countryman Yohan Blake have run faster than Bolt this year, though there is a long way to go and it would be wrong to doubt him at this early stage.

The race for gold in Rio continues.

Meanwhile, the UK’s James Ellington took the men’s 200m in 20.35, just outside of his new lifetime best of 20.31 recorded in Clermont, Florida, USA but he was made to work in the closing stages, just staving off a challenge from Greece’s Tsákonas Likoúrgos-Stéfa. Fellow Brit, Lawrence Clarke occupied the bronze medal position in the 110m hurdles with a season’s best of 13.57, but it wasn’t enough to see off Jarret Eaton’s 13.25 and Jeff Porter’s 13.42, both of the USA. In the 400m, Martyn Rooney finished fourth, extending his lead at the top of the UK’s rankings to 45.78 but was still off the pace of Jamaica’s Javon Francis’ 44.87. Another Brit, Rhys Williams picked up a season’s best of 49.85 in the 400m hurdles in fifth position.