Usain Bolt reacts after establishing a new national record for the 200 metres after winning the final at the Puma/Supreme Ventures National Senior and Junior Athletics Championships at the National Stadium, last Sunday night. - Ricardo Makyn/Staff Photographer

KINGSTON (CMC):

LEGENDARY JAMAICAN sprinter Donald Quarrie, who won Olympic 200-metre gold in 1976, has praised Usain Bolt's remarkable victory in the half-lap sprint at the Jamaica National Championships, last weekend.

The 20-year-old Bolt ran a personal best and Caribbean record 19.75 to win the men's 200m, erasing Quarrie's previous national record of 19.86 seconds that stood for 36 years.

Bolt's run on Sunday beat Ato Boldon's mark of 19.77, which stood for 10 years as the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) record."He ran very, very well. He ran relaxed, I think what helped a lot he was confident, no one in the race could beat him," Quarrie said. "What I am hoping is for him to take the same mentality with a relaxed attitude when he runs against a guy like Tyson Gay," said Quarrie.

Current world-leader

American Gay is the current world-leader at 19.62 seconds and second fastest man all time - behind Michael Johnson, the world record holder at 19.32 - over the distance. Gay and Walter Dix (19.69) are the only men faster than Bolt so far in the 2007 season.

Quarrie, present at the National Stadium, went over to congratulate Bolt after his run, and expressed happiness for the young man, but said he would be satisfied if Bolt goes on to beat the world's best, including Gay and Wallace Spearmon, who ran 19.65 last year."Beating my record and not beating Tyson Gay, Wallace Spearmon and those other guys is not enough for me," Quarrie said.

"I want him to beat those guys ... those guys are running 19.6, and now he is running 19.7, that means he is a contender," added Quarrie.

Quarrie won the 200m at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, Canada, breaking a 24-year gold medal drought for Jamaica at the Olympics - spanning five Games.

Quarrie, who also won silver in the 100 metres - behind Trinidad and Tobago's Hasely Crawford - at the Montreal Olympics, was Jamaica's Sportsman of the Year five times - 1970, 1971, 1975, 1976 and 1977.