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Published Sunday August 17, 2008
KINGSTON, Jamaica
Contributed
Jamaicans were celebrating in the streets on Saturday and they had reason to. Their star sprinter, Usain Bolt had done what no other Jamaican had done before. He got the Olympic gold medal in the men's 100-metres final in Beijing, China in world record time.
Back in May Bolt shocked the world of track and field when he clocked the second fastest time in history in the 100m event at the Jamaica International Invitational. His time of 9.76 was just 0.02 seconds slower than the fastest time of 9.74, which his compatriot Asafa Powell posted in Italy last year.
But on Saturday, August 16, 2008, Bolt crossed the finish line in a new Olympic and world record of 6.69 seconds.
The fact that the 200m is really Bolt's pet event and he holds records in that area, including the Jamaica national record, made his feat even more amazing.
Standing at six foot five inches and weighing 190 pounds, Bolt, 21, won one gold for the 200-metres and two silver medals for the relays at the 2002 World Junior Championships, Jamaica, when he was 15. He won another gold medal at the World Youth Championships, running the 200-metres in 20.40 seconds.
In 2004 Bolt broke Lorenzo Daniel's world junior 200m record to become the first junior to break the 20-second barrier, running 19.93 seconds.
At the 2007 Jamaican Championships, Bolt ran 19.75, breaking the 36-year-old national record held by his countryman Don Quarrie by 11 hundredths of a second. At the World Championships in Osaka, he won a silver medal in the 200-metres behind American, Tyson Gay.
Many Jamaicans who had gathered at their homes, sports bars and in city centres Saturday cheered wildly as Bolt slapped his chest as he bagged Jamaica's first medal at the 2008 Olympics.
Prime Minister Bruce Golding and Opposition Leader Portia Simpson Miller showered praises on Bolt as well as Asafa Powell and Michael Frater, who both made it to the final of the event but failed to medal.
Bolt started who playing cricket as an all-rounder first tried track and field at the age of 10 after his coach told him to. He fell in love with the track and he never looked back.
And while it is said that lightning never strikes the same place twice, Bolt wants to change that.
"My goal for the Olympics is to run 19.6 in the 200-metres; I definitely want to be a gold medallist at the Olympics, but the 200m is my preferred race."
Now we wait.
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