Usain Bolt won a third successive Olympic 200m gold on Thursday to
keep his hopes of an unprecendented “triple triple” alive and deliver
a perfect tonic to the doping-tainted world of track and field.
The victory in his favoured event was Bolt’s 13th individual world or
Olympic sprint title from a possible 14 since he took athletics by storm
at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
The 29-year Jamaican timed 19.78 seconds for gold, Canadian
Andre de Grasse taking silver with 20.02sec and France’s Christophe
Lemaitre winning bronze (20.12).
As Guns N’Roses’ “Welcome to the Jungle” blasted out, huge cheers
greeted Bolt, wearing black lycra shorts and a singlet in the green,
gold and black colours of Jamaica.
The sell-out Olympic Stadium crowd, which has been criticised for its
jeering of some athletes, were raucous in their welcome of the
Jamaican star.
Bolt, in his favoured lane six, had Lashawn Merritt, the American
400m specialist and sole US hope of a medal after Justin Gatlin
failed to make the eight-man final, just inside him.
Immediately out of the blocks, the Jamaican was quickly up on
Lemaitre, racing in seven.
With temperature around 27 degrees Celsius (84F) and the track
shining after a light shower of rain, Bolt delivered electrifying control
around the bend, hitting the back stretch in full tilt.
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