Bolt ... I am capable of something 'very special'. - File
LONDON (CMC):
JAMAICA'S 100-METRE world record holder Usain Bolt is anticipating a fast time when he competes over 200 metres at the Aviva London Grand Prix next weekend.
Quoted in an IAAF website story yesterday, Bolt suggested that he is poised to do "something very special" in the half-lap sprint at Crystal Palace although his programme so far this season has been mainly 100m sprints.
"I still see the 200m as my best event. I know I am capable of something very special over the longer distance," said Bolt, who turns 22 next month.
'I can't wait'
"I can't wait to get out there and show just what I can do over 200m at the Aviva London Grand Prix. Crystal Palace is known as a quick track, there will be a truly world-class field and there is always good support for the Jamaican athletes when we run in London. I can't wait," he said.
Bolt is the London Grand Prix defending champion over 200m. The 6-foot-5-inch marvel became the new 100m world record holder on May 31 when he clocked 9.72 seconds to whip American World Champion Tyson Gay at the Reebok Grand Prix in New York. The effort erased the previous world mark of 9.74 seconds by his Jamaican colleague Asafa Powell.
Last Sunday, Bolt re-emphasised his outstanding form with a career-best run in the 200m at the Athens Grand Prix, clocking a world-leading 19.67 seconds - a new Jamaica record and the world's fifth-fastest time ever over the trip. Bolt, a 200m World Championship silver medallist, behind Gay, in Osaka last year, will join Powell at the London meeting in what is likely to be their last outing before Beijing. Powell is entered for the 100m with Gay, who is booked to compete although he suffered a hamstring injury at the recent US Olympic Trials.