Ato Boldon pulls no punches

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BEIJING -- NBC commentator and four-time Olympic sprint medalist Ato Boldon was outspoken, as usual, in analyzing the 100 meters.

Asked if Tyson Gay’s hamstring, injured at the Olympic trials, would hold up for four rounds, Boldon said bluntly, ‘No.’

Asked if Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt would be hurt by his 100 inexperience, Boldon said, ‘You tend to panic more when you’ve been there. When something goes wrong, you start to think, ‘Uh, oh, not this again.’

‘Therein lies the disadvantage of someone like Asafa Powell. You don’t think that at 40 or 50 or 60 [meters] and he sees Gay or Bolt next to him, he’s not going to have a flashback?’

Boldon was referring to Powell’s collapse under pressure from Gay at the 2007 world championships.

And if Bolt gets a good start?

‘It’s over,’ Boldon said.

-- Philip Hersh