MANCHESTER, England – RECOVERING from minor injuries due to his recent car accident did little to slow down Jamaica’s world sprinting champion Usain Bolt as he dashed to a new world record in the 150m yesterday (May 17).
The Bupa Great City Games were held in Manchester, England and featured some of the top male and female sprinters from around the world competing in a unique 150m street race.
While many of the runners stated before the race that they planned to have fun at the exhibition event, Bolt said that he would be going there to seriously “compete as an athlete”.
After the race was finished, there was no doubt that was exactly what Bolt had done. Running a blistering 14.35 seconds in the event, the 22-year-old Jamaican obliterated the previous record of 14.80 seconds set by Italy’s Pietro Mennea in1983.
Perhaps the most impressive part of Bolt’s race was the fact that his final 100m only took him 8.70 seconds. Despite completely blowing out his closest competition, Great Britian’s Marlon Devonish (15.07) and the United States’ Ivory Williams (15.08), Bolt said that he did not feel he performed as well as he could have.
“I thought I would just go out there and run a good time. I’m not in the best shape and I still have a lot of work to do, but I am getting there,” he stated following the race.
He went on to indicate that he is a full month behind in his training with his coach Glen Mills and had no expectations of breaking a record at the event.
“Another world record? It is one more to the tally,” he told reporters. The win in the 150m now makes the fourth world record that Bolt holds, with the prior three being set in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China.
The Caribbean also demonstrated itself well in the Women’s 150m at the City Games, as Bahamian Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie went on to win the event in a time of 16.54 seconds.
The victory for the only non-Britian in the entire women’s division as she was routed the heavily-favoured Christine Ohuruogu, who won the Olympic gold medal in the 400m.
Ohuruogu placed second well behind Ferguson with a time of 17.10sec.
