LONDON OLYMPICS 2012: CAN USAIN BOLT REPEAT HIS BEIJING HEROICS?

London: Four years after storming into the limelight, breaking world records in 100m and 200m, Usain Bolt is all set to take on his rivals in his bid to cement his status as a ‘living legend’.

For that all he has to do is to repeat the feat he achieved at Beijing. However, it is not as easy as it may sound. His main threat would be from his countryman, Yohan Blake, who upset Bolt in the 100 and 200 finals at the Jamaican trials. Beyond the Jamaicans there are Americans Tyson Gay and Justin Gatlin. Gay is still in search of an Olympic medal while 2004 Olympic champion Gatlin is back after four-year ban. Former world-record holder Asafa Powell still remains a threat.

Bolt set the world record in Beijing at 9.69 seconds and lowered 9.58 a year later at the world championships a year later. His coach, Glen Mills, says a 100-meter run in the 9.4-second range is possible this time around. However, Bolt recently revealed that he had hamstring problems related to a bad back. Now the biggest question heading into the Olympics is whether four weeks were enough for Bolt to work out the kinks.

Last year, Bolt became the first high-profile athlete to get disqualified owing to the track’s new zero-tolerance rule for jumping the gun at the world championships. The 10-day athletics meet begins on Friday with the opening heats of the women`s 100 at 80,000-seat Olympic Stadium. On Saturday, defending Olympic champion Usain Bolt and Jamaican teammates Yohan Blake and Asafa Powell will run heats and round one of the 100m alongside US rivals Tyson Gay and Justin Gatlin, with the semi-finals and final scheduled for Sunday.

ZeeNews