Saturday, 30 June 2012

Bolt Beaten by Blake in Kingston


Usain Bolt suffered a big upset in the 100m final at the Jamaican Olympic trials when he was beaten by Yohan Blake who clocked 9.75 seconds.

Blake stormed past defending Olympic champion Bolt - who ran 9.86 seconds - to set the year's fastest time and a personal best.

Former world record holder Asafa Powell was third with 9.88 seconds at Kingston's National Stadium.

The result sees all three men qualify for the London 2012 Olympics.

The 9.75 time also makes Blake the fourth fastest man of all time behind Bolt's world record of 9.58, American Tyson Gay's 9.69 and Asafa Powell's 9.72.

"No pressure at all... everything is good. I'm just fortunate," Blake said after beating his personal best of 9.82. "I'm the national champion of Jamaica now, I go into the Olympics like this."

Bolt was slow out of the blocks in both the final and earlier semi-final. He said afterwards of his start: "I had to ignore it. I had trouble getting out, but I kept feeling like I could not give up."

It was the first time Bolt and Blake had faced each other since Blake took the world title in Daegu last year after the Olympic champion was disqualified for a false start.

Bolt, who won Olympic gold in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay at the 2008 Games in Beijing, had held the fastest time in the world this year after clocking 9.76 in Rome last month.

In the semi-finals, it was Powell who clocked the fastest time of 9.92 seconds, with Blake third in the same race, behind Nesta Carter.

After a slow start Bolt eventually took the lead midway in his semi-final and won in 10.01, nosing out Michael Frater on 10.02.

In the women's 100m final, defending Olympic champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce broke the Jamaican record with a time of 10.70 seconds, with Veronica Campbell-Brown second and Kerron Stewart third.

Nearly 400 Jamaican athletes have been competing for about 60 berths in London in what could be the largest athletics delegation ever sent to an Olympics by the Caribbean nation.



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