Jamaica’s sprint king Usain Bolt ripped a massive 0,11seconds off his own 200m world record on Thursday at the World Athletics Championships and then insisted he is clean from doping.
Bolt put his world record-breaking 200m sprint down to his exemplary start, which saw him gain an immediate advantage over his rivals as he blitzed to victory in a staggering 19,19 seconds.
The Jamaican insists he wants to show the world an athlete can run exceptional times while remaining clean of drugs.
”I can just keep telling people I am clean,” he said.
”I just run, that is what I do, I don’t know what else I can say to prove to people I am clean.
”I get tested all the time, I train hard, I am legit.
”Hopefully, if I keep winning and stay clean the questions will go away one day.”
Bolt has now all four 100m and 200m titles at both the Beijing Olympic Games and the World Athletics Championships here at Berlin’s Olympic Stadium in world record times.
He also took 0,11secs off his own 100m record when he won Sunday’s final here at the world championships after clocking 9,58sec, mirroring his exploits from the Beijing Olympics last summer.
”I said early in the season that I had to get my start right,” said the Jamaican who turns 23 on Friday and was the fastest out of the blocks in the 200m final when he took just 0,133 to react.
”I worked on it. That was the key in this final: I got my start right.”
Bolt added that his pre-race routine had been a quiet one.
”I was just in my room playing video games all day,” said the Jamaican. ”It keeps me calm and that is the aim.”
And the Jamaican says he will celebrate his birthday on Friday with some much needed rest.
”I am going to have a long sleep, I am really, really tired right now, I just want to get some sleep,” he said.
Bolt, who has the chance to add to his medal haul here in the 4x100m relay, said he had no plans to step down from the athletics circuit.
”I plan to defend my titles at the next world championships and Olympic Games,” he said, musing over the highest accolade on the Commonwealth honours list a Jamaican could receive.
”If Queen Elizabeth gave me a knighthood and I’d get the title ‘Sir Usain Bolt’? That sounds very nice.
”My aim is to be a legend and that is what I am working on right now.
”I don’t put myself under pressure, I know what I have to do and when I go out there I just focus on executing that as well as I can.”
Bolt inists he has no idea if he can lower his new 200m record and says 9.4seconds will be his limit for the 100m.
”I didn’t say I could run 9,4seconds, I said that could be the limit,” he said.
”I don’t know what the limits are for the 200m, anything is possible and I didn’t think I could run 19,19secs.” — AFP
