Legendary triple Olympian, Jamaica’s Usain St. Leo Bolt, will run for the last time tomorrow, Sat. August 12th.
Bolt, who many had hoped to end his solo career with a 12th gold medal, fell short to the US’ Justin Gatlin last Saturday. Bolt is now hoping to redeem that for his fans and country tomorrow when he runs for Jamaica in the 4x100m relay at the IAAF 2017 World Championships in London.
Heats for the 4x100m will take place also on Saturday. NBC will show the race to its US fans between 3 and 5 p.m. on Sat. afternoon, Aug. 12
The legendary Queen Merlene Ottey pic.twitter.com/SzYoNWVjzd
— Usain St. Leo Bolt (@usainbolt) August 9, 2017
Bolt is keen to bring his experience, despite feeling a little sore after his efforts in the individual event.
‘Physically I am alright, there is a little bit of pain, but nothing a massage can’t cure, I’m taking it easy,’ Bolt said of his condition two days after clocking a season’s best equaling 9.95 seconds in the 100-m final.
But he added: “We’ll see, we haven’t done any baton changes as yet with the guys, but I feel we are ready.”
The race comes as Jamaican track and field legends Merlene Ottey and Bolt shared an iconic moment in London this week, when the ‘sprint queen’ visited with local athletes at the World Championships.
The two legends took a photo together which was shared by Bolt on social media on Wednesday, attracting hundreds of likes, shares and comments.
CARIBBEAN MEDAL COUNT AT IAAF
The Caribbean’s medal count at the IAAF World Championship yesterday ticked to six with two bronze wins by two Caribbean athletes yesterday, Aug. 10, 2017.
Twenty-three-year-old Jereem Richards of Trinidad and Tobago won bronze in the men’s 200-m finals. Richards medaled in a time of 20.107 behind South Africa’s Wayde Van Niekerk who was beaten into second by Turkish runner, 27-year-old Ramil Guliyev.
Richards, however, complained that his race had been undermined when he slipped coming out of his blocks. “I tried my best not to let it affect me too much,” he said. “At the turn I wasn’t in contention really, so to get a medal from there is a great achievement.” It was the first global men’s 100 or 200m final since 2003 not to feature a US or Jamaican medalist.
Meanwhile, Ristananna Tracey also won a bronze for Jamaica in the women’s 400-m hurdles finals. She was beaten into third by the US’ Koris Carter who took the gold and Dalilah Muhammad, also of the US, who was second.
“This season has been full of setbacks and it has taken a lot of mental strength to get into this position,” said Tracey, who smashed her previous best of 54.15 set in the Rio final last year where she finished fifth. “It was a very strong race and I kept telling myself not to panic. Off the last hurdle I gave everything and threw myself for a dip just in case.”
Jamaica now leads the Caribbean with three medals –two bronze and one gold, while Cuba, The Bahamas and Trinidad & Tobago have one each.
SOURCE: News Americas Now
