London 2012 Olympics: Bolt ends all disputes - he IS the greatest

IF THERE is a heaven then Jesse Owens is there and maybe he was looking down on the Olympic Stadium last night.

The tragedy of Owens’ career is that the outbreak of war denied him the chance to defend the sprint titles he won in Berlin in 1936. The chances are he would have done it. He was that good. Up until Usain Bolt came along, you might have said he was the best. Not now. Not ever again.

No dispute about the greatest. None at all. The double double. That’s what we saw here, not that we expected anything else. Gold in the 100m and 200m in Beijing four years ago; gold in the 100m and 200m in London this past week. No other man alive or dead has ever done this before, but then no sprinter in history has ever been like Bolt. The Jamaican is not only shredding the record books, he’s eating the evidence that there was once a world of sprinting before he existed. More and more that world recedes into the distance. Old hat. Irrelevant.

There was no world record, no dismantling of times he himself has set in the recent past. He ran 19.32, merely; the fourth fastest time in history and the equal of Michael Johnson’s time in Atlanta in 1996. And he did it slowing down. Only two people have run quicker than that in history and Bolt is one of them, Yohan Blake the other.

If there was a disappointment that the world record didn’t fall then it was a minor one when set against the fact that he did all of this – all of it – while not 100 per cent fit. He admitted to some back strain during the final, some discomfort. Imagine what it must have been like for his rivals to hear that. They couldn’t even do him when he was hurting. Couldn’t even get all that close.

Sensing that the world record wasn’t on Bolt instead resorted to theatre, easing up with a few strides to go, looking across to his hard-running mate, Blake, and lifting a finger to his mouth as if to say: ‘Ssssh, you’ve made a lot of noise young man, but look at me! Wheee!’

Blake was second and to complete the Jamaican monopoly Warren Weir was third. Blake was graciousness personified. A gallant loser. As the medallists posed with the flag of their nation covering them like a blanket, Weir held his finger upwards to the sky, but Blake had his pointed sideways to Bolt. He knew his place. It was easy to feel sympathy for him. If there was no Bolt, he’d be double Olympic champion this morning, he’d be the hottest ticket in the game, the hero of his homeland and the talk of the word. All of that belongs to the continuing phenomenon that is Bolt.

“This is what I wanted and I got it,” he said. “I’m very proud of myself. After a rough season I came out here and did it. I thought the world record was possible. I guess I was fast but not fit enough. I could feel my back strain a little bit, so all I did was to keep my form. I’m very dedicated to my work and London meant so much to me.”

Bolt again drove a dumptruck through the already discredited formbook from Kingston and those Jamaican trials that saw Blake beat him twice. Mere incidentals to the great man. His capacity to bring out his best stuff just when he needs it is now legendary. In the 100m he ran his fastest time of the year and the second fastest in history. Last night he ran his fastest time of the year once again – and one of his fastest times in history. He didn’t challenge his 19.19sec world record from Berlin, but what difference did it make?

Such a record can be broken another time – and you can be sure that Bolt will be the man to do it. But the big picture of what he achieved last night might never be touched. It’s a hard thing to put into perspective, so outlandish an achievement is it. Not only has no sprinter ever backed-up double Olympic titles but the last person to do it on the track over any distance was Lasse Viren when he won 5,000m and 10,000m gold in 1972 and 1976.

As soon as Bolt came out of the blocks like a bullet from a gun – most unusual for him – this 200m final was all but over, surely even in the mind of Blake, the boy most likely to raise a challenge to the incomparable Lightning Man. After 10m, Bolt was gone. Coming round the bend it was only a question of how far he was going to win by – or wanted to win by. On the home straight it looked for the briefest of seconds like Blake was gaining, but maybe it was just an optical illusion. Or maybe it was a deliberate thing on Bolt’s part. Give Blake the chance to almost draw level so the younger man could see him doing the shush thing as he went across the line.

Last night was the tenth occasion Bolt went under 19.70sec. Blake has done it twice. In five years Bolt has never lost a championship 200m and never looked like losing this one. What was it he did at the start of the race? While Blake (‘The Beast’) was doing his animalistic thing, Bolt was performing some kind of royal wave on the starting blocks. He was cool as could be. Maybe whatever pressure he felt coming to these Games left him on Sunday night when he won the 100m, but whatever it was, he was chilled. And then he was on fire.

At the end he larked about as only Bolt can. He posed. He pouted. He did press-ups. He took a photographer’s camera from him and took snaps. For the second night in a week he owned the place. For the second Olympics in a row he is The Man. The History Man.