Rio de Janeiro, Brazil — It’s now official. Usain Bolt has achieved immortality after anchoring Jamaica to victory in the Men’s 4x100m relay to complete an unprecedented treble-triple of gold medals here at the Olympic Stadium last night.
It was Bolt’s third gold of the Olympic Games following wins in the 100m and 200m, and his ninth in four Olympic Games.
He now joins a select few of Paavo Nurmi, long distance runner from Finland, and Carl Lewis, of the United States of America, on nine gold medals.
Jamaica started a powerful team which saw former world record holder Asafa Powell leading off and handing over to the 2011 World champion Yohan Blake, who relayed to Nickel Ashmeade and finally to Bolt to do the rest. He got the baton alongside American Trayvon Bromell before turning on the after burners and moving away for an impressive victory in 37.27 seconds.
“As soon as I got my hand on the stick I knew I had won. There was no one on that leg that could outrun me today. I was just going to run hard and see how fast we could run,” said Bolt.
The ever-improving Japan were second in 37.60 seconds, with Canada third in a national record of 37.64 seconds. The USA, who originally passed the finish line in third place, were once again disqualified.
It was a fitting finale to Bolt’s well-decorated Olympic career which started in 2004 and ended with him being an absolute legend, something he had not envisaged when he started out.
“Not even close. I would have never even thought I could go back-to-back-to-back Olympics. At the first one I was just happy. The second one was a challenge, then to come here and do the third was just unbelievable to me,” Bolt said.
“All the weight is gone now. It’s a relief. I have done it all. I am happy with myself. I have accomplished so much and I am just proud of myself,” said Bolt.
“I hope that I have set the bar high enough that no one else can do it again, so I am just proud of myself and happy,” he noted. (Jamaica Observer)
