Ellen Wallace
Updated Wednesday Usain Bolt did it again – running so fast the others in the 100 metres at Lausanne’s Athletissima tonight looked almost slow. But then a funny thing happened. He slowed down, noticeably, before the finish line. It made no difference to winning because he was well ahead. So why would a top athlete do that? Why cheat himself and the rest of us of that glorious moment of going flat out right to the finish line.
The bonus for breaking a world record isn’t quite as big as some others? There is no reason to suspect the Jamaican superstar of calculating his haul in gold bars while streaking down the track, but it’s happened before: that financially savvy pole vaulter Sergey Bubka became notoriously famous for winning by a fraction more each time until he accumulated a surprising amount of wealth. Some of us love to watch the beauty that is a human being going flat out in a sprint. Give us the end of the race, too, please.
For the record: Bolt matched the 2006 meeting record set by Xavier Carter, at 19.63, but fell well short of breaking his 19.30 world record set at the Beijing Olympics
Editor’s note: the 24 Heures sports page, Lausanne asks the same question today: and if Bolt had run hard right to the end?
GenevaLunch, 2 September 2008.
Filed under: Sports
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