Bolt sets world record, wins Olympic 100 gold

BEIJING (AP)—He won it with his golden shoe untied. Usain Bolt set the world record and won the Olympic 100-meter gold medal Saturday in 9.69 seconds—a time that could have been faster had he not spent the last seven strides pounding his chest, turning up the palms of his outstretched arms and mugging for the cameras before he crossed the finish line with his left shoelace flapping.He won by more than a body length—a country mile in sprint proportions— and the only question left was how fast he could have gone if he had run hard the entire way.“It wasn’t planned,” the newly crowned “World’s Fastest Man” said of his running celebration. “My aim was to come out and win. When I saw the time, I’m celebrating. I’m happy.”He broke his own record, set in May in New York, by .03 second and became the first sprinter to set the world record in the Olympics since Donovan Bailey ran 9.84 at the 1996 Atlanta Games.“No one will get near it,” fellow Jamaican Michael Frater, the sixth-place finisher, said of Bolt’s record. Except perhaps Bolt himself.Bolt beat Richard Thompson of Trinidad and Tobago by 0.2 second while American Walter Dix was third. The race marked the first time six runners broke 10 seconds in the Olympics. There was no wind—the reading was 0.0.Asafa Powell, the Jamaican who held the world record for three years before Bolt grabbed it, continued his string of big-race disappointments, fading to fifth for the second straight Olympics.American Tyson Gay, who was supposed to be the third part of a so-called dream race, didn’t even make the final, eliminated with a fifth-place finish in his semi.Bolt’s specialty has been the 200 meters, and he will be a heavy favorite to win that one Wednesday in what would be the first men’s Olympic sprint double since Carl Lewis in 1988. Bolt persuaded his coach 13 months ago to let him try the 100, too—and what quick progress he has made.“Usain was spectacular,” Powell said. “He was definitely untouchable tonight. He could have gone a lot faster if he had run straight through the line.” SOURCE:NBCOLYMPICS.COM