Lightning bolt: Jamaica’s Usain Bolt wins 100 meters

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

BEIJING -- Well, that was impressive.

Usain Bolt, who doesn’t even specialize in the 100 meters and didn’t decide to run it until a few days before he had to make up his mind, won the race Saturday in a new world record of 9.69 seconds.

The amazing thing was that he could have run faster except that he started celebrating about five meters before the finish line. He might have put the record out of sight, the way FloJo did in 1988 for the women, if he had run through the finish line.

Wow.

He held the previous record at 9.72 seconds.

The other amazing thing was that he was by far the tallest sprinter in the final and, as a result, it took him a few meters, maybe 20, to unwind out of the blocks. Once he did, it was over.

No one was close at the end.

Richard Thompson of Trinidad and Tobago finished second in 9.89. Walter Dix of Tallahassee, Fla., was third in 9.91.

Asafa Powell, who until this year was considered Jamaica’s most formidable sprinter, was fifth.

-- Randy Harvey