Olympics: Usain Bolt beaten by Yohan Blake in Jamaican Olympic trials

Published on 01/07/2012 00:33

THE world’s fastest man wasn’t the fastest man in Jamaica on Friday night.

Instead, that honour was snatched away by Yohan Blake, the man they call “The Beast,” who blew away Usain Bolt out of the starting blocks and finished the 100 metres final in 9.75 seconds to upset the world-record holder by 0.11sec in the Jamaican Olympic trials.

Blake is the reigning world champion, but that victory came with an asterisk because Bolt, the reigning Olympic champion, didn’t run that night in South Korea after being disqualified for a false start. This was their first rematch, the first real race between the training partners since then. Bolt was considered the favourite, not only because of his world record – 9.58sec – but because Blake had never run faster than 9.82 in his life.

Well, now, he has.

The 9.75 seconds on a calm night in Kingston goes down as the best time in the world this year and breaks the four-year-old National Stadium record; both previous marks were 9.76 – both held by Bolt. Only Bolt, Asafa Powell and Tyson Gay have ever run faster.