Usain Bolt of Jamaica runs in the third leg of the men's 4x100-metre relay during the athletics competitions in the National Stadium at the Beijing 2008 Olympics in Beijing yesterday. The Jamaican team won the race with a new world record. - AP

BEIJING, China (CMC):

Four-time Olympic silver medallist, Frankie Fredericks of Namibia, believes International Olympic Committee (IOC) president, Jacques Rogge, was wrong to criticise Usain Bolt for the way he celebrated his Olympic sprint double feat.

Rogge cautioned Bolt to show more respect to his fellow competitors following his "showboating antics" to celebrate winning both the 100 metres and 200 metres gold medals in world record times.

Let him celebrate

But Fredericks, a legend in the world of sprinting and a man who was involved in two world record races at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, felt Jamaican Bolt had landed a unique feat in track & field and should be allowed to celebrate any which way he feels.

"We cannot tell a guy who has run 9.69 seconds and 19.30 seconds how he needs to react," said Fredericks, who is head of the IOC's athletics commission.

"It's the moment athletes have trained for so long and he's making history. It's not like a thing you have planned or you have rehearsed. Usain is such a relaxed guy."

In his three races at the Olympics in Beijing, Bolt won three gold medals with three world records.

He dominated the 100 and surpassed his previous world mark of 9.72 and this was followed by an amazing 200 to break the 12-year-old world record of American Michael Johnson by 0.02 seconds.

Other competitors

Fredericks disagreed with Rogge that the other competitors in the race may be offended by Bolt's gestures.

"He's the star and it's his moment and his victory lap," Fredericks said. "There are seven others who can hug each other afterwards.

"Michael did the same thing lying on the floor. I had no idea what I did until I watched the tapes. But I wouldn't have cared. I was in his slip-stream. I set a personal best and was happy."

Bolt capped a wonderful Olympic for himself and indeed for Jamaica when he ran a blistering 8.9 seconds on the third leg of the Jamaican 4x100 relay team that broke the Americans' 15-year-old world mark of 37.40.

The race was anchored by former 100 world record holder Asafa Powell, who had promised Bolt just before the start of the race that the team would make sure that he not only got his third gold medal, but also his third world record.