Bolt strikes twice, with a second WR Posted

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

BEIJING - Usain Bolt completed his sprint double Wednesday with a gold medal in the men's 200m. Once again, the Jamaican blew away the field, but this time he ran through the finish and with a 19.30 broke Michael Johnson's world record. On Saturday night, Bolt won the 100m with a world record of 9.69 seconds. He began his celebration with 20 meters to go, throwing his arms in the air and pounding his chest as he crossed the finish. He had this one won about halfway through, but unlike his record-setting performance in the 100m, there was no hot-dogging, no celebrating until he crossed the line. He went hard all the way, looking at the clock down the stretch, leaning at the line, knowing that Johnson's venerable mark was within reach. When he saw the number come up -- a number that never has before -- he raised his arms, then fell flat to his back, arms and legs outstreched, and basked in the roar of the Bird's Nest crowd. Bolt is the first man since American Carl Lewis in 1984 to sweep the 100m and 200m gold medals at an Olympics. He is also the first man ever to break the world marks in both sprints at an Olympics. Not even Lewis or Jesse Owens managed that. Showing what he can do when he runs at full speed all the way through the finish - something he hadn't done yet in the Beijing Games - Bolt eclipsed the old record of 19.32 seconds set by Michael Johnson in Atlanta in 1996, who had predicted that Bolt would not beat his record this Olympics. "He won't run faster than my world record here (Beijing), but eventually he will because he has the talent to do it," said Johnson. "What we saw in the 100m was technique and speed, which he has and he has the best of any sprinter we've ever seen because of his stride length and efficiency put together. "But stride length and efficiency won't get you the world record in the 200m you need another component that you have to bring into the equation and that is endurance. "The 200m is very long sprint and so Bolt has to be able to sustain the efficiency and the speed and technique that we saw in the 100m," he said. "For him to break the record he will have to be able to sustain that (speed and technique) in the 200m for 19seconds and that's very, very difficult to do. It's not impossible for him to do."