Usain Upstaged
Usain Bolt was actually upstaged
on the track yesterday...only it was it an event different from his. Kenyan
David Rudisha blitzed the 800 m field securing the first athletics world record
in the London games – ironic (or perhaps poetically just) that the first (and
probably the only) track and field record should come in the Chief Organiser of
the Games , Lord Sebastian Coe’s pet event.
If Rudisha was the toast of the
day – the Jamaicans were 2nd only by a photo finish. A magnificent ,
unprecedented 1-2-3 in the men’s 200 m ensured the reggae boys had earned 5 of
the 6 available medals in the men’s sprints. Bolt, after looking like he was
under pressure from Yohan Blake at the halfway stage , pulled away over the
final meters , slowed down, looked left and right and raised a finger to his
lips – all this while equalling Michael Johnson’s best ever time. In a typically
unpredictable Bolt celebration, he went down and crunched 10 push-ups
immediately after crossing the finish line, before he and Blake clowned around
for the crowd with a borrowed camera – in your face to the taciturn doubting Americans,
no doubt.
Performer of the Day : Neither Bolt nor Rudisha but the American Manteo Mitchell who actually
completed the final 200m of his 4x 400 m relay leg with a broken leg – I kid
you not...now that’s a true Olympian.
Thrashing of the Day : Great Britain
who were well and truly humbled by an inspired Dutch team in a 9-2 mauling – in
a semi-final game , mind you !!
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