Sports

Bolt wins third gold, will still be happy

by julianw | August 22, 2008 at 12:38 pm

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Usain Bolt, Asafa Powell, Michael Frater, and Nesta Carter on Friday won the 4x100m relay in a world-record breaking time of 37.10 sec. Bolt et al were almost one second ahead of silver medalist Trinidad and Tobago, and the gap was big enough that the other teams were outside of the camera frame when Powell crossed the finish line.

Usain Bolt helped Jamaica's men take yet another emphatic sprinting gold medal, and the team anchored by Asafa Powell smashed the world record for the 4x100m relay in the process.

Bolt, Olympic champion and world record-holder over 100m and 200m, was for once not first across the line, as he was chosen to run the third leg. It was no great surprise that he passed the baton to Powell having taken yards from every other team on the crucial second bend, but Powell himself, as so often in the past, saved his best form for the relay.

He looked relaxed and positive as he extended Jamaica's lead over Trinidad and Tobago to almost 40 metres. It was another astonishing display of sprinting, and with it came a new world record, beating the US's 1992 record by 0.3 seconds, to establish a new mark of 37.10sec.

Despite being critcized as too happy by IOC President Rogge, Bolt celebrated his victory by dancing and hugging his team mates. He was unfazed by Rogge's comments, the Edmonton Sun reports.

"It's just me, having fun," said Bolt, who first shrugged his shoulders when asked his reaction to the Rogge comments. "To me, I'm a performer. I come to perform. I love to perform, to enjoy yourself. It's good to enjoy yourself.

"I don't change. I like it. The fans like it. Track and field needs something like this. I love it, the crowd loves it, they look forward to seeing it - I know that. They love it when I put on a show."