Moscow Open

12th IAAF World Championships in Athletics
from behind and I had to speed
up. That was really tough but,
in the end, it all worked out for
me.” said Kirdyapkin, explaining
that the success of Saransk
walkers was due to coach Viktor
Chegin’s school and the patronage
of the President of the
Republic of Mordovia, Nikolay
Merkushkin.
On the Road
to Becoming a Legend
Perhaps it was only after
the World Championships that
Usain Bolt realized he should
have also learnt to master the
long jump. Then he could have
repeated the feat of Jesse
Owens in Berlin
42 | www.athletics-magazine.com
in 1936. But even without the
long jump, Bolt managed to
achieve the highest accolades
setting two world records,
deeply shocking his rivals, and
winning three gold medals,
whilst all the time saying that
he was in a worse shape than
at the Olympics in Beijing and
that he failed to get a world
record for the 4x100 relay because,
by the end of the competition
he was too tired.
Following the recommendations
of his consultants, Bolt
did his best to present himself
as a superstar. At the start of
the final of the 100 meters,
other athletes tried to play the
same game as him, making
faces at the camera and trying
to behave in a joking way. But,
on the starting line up, there
was an air of nervous excitement.
Bolt was trying to relax,
and, despite all the hype
that had been created by the
media about his personality,
once he got down to his starting
blocks, he also felt the tension
of the moment. Next to
him was the menacing,
American, Tyson Gay.
However, after the
semi-finals, it had
become apparent
to onlookers that
Bolt was ready
for a world
record, and
there was
nobody
equal to
him in
Berlin.
But
no-
body
forecast such an
impressive world record.
When the racing machines
burst from their blocks, Bolt,
pushed by Asafa Powell and
Gay, without any visible effort,
Anna Rogowska
brought the world record down
to 9.58 seconds. “When I led
the race after 50 meters, I realized
that I had won because
it was going to be very difficult
for anyone to overtake me as
the latter part of my race is
the best part of my run” he
would say later. “This season I
started my training a little bit
late because I got involved in a
stupid car accident.”
At the finish of the race, the
Usain Bolt show began. He repeated
over and over again his
famous ‘arrow’ gesture to the
applause of the public. A sort
of mass hysteria took hold of
the stadium and thousands
of fans of the athlete refused
to leave the arena even after
the event had finished and
continued to yell enthusiastically.
Bolt made long leisurely
rounds of all the TV commentators,
gave interviews, as well
as posing for and communicating
with his fans. Part of
his fame even rubbed off on
the bronze medalist, Asafa
Powell, who was also honored
like a champion. Powell would
Elena Isinbaeva
later admit that he was not
ready to challenge Usain.
“I am glad that such a runner
like Bolt appeared and I’m
pleased with this out-of-thisworld
record, which, unfortunately,
was not set by me”
said silver medalist Tyson
sadly who had got a good look
at the back of the athlete that
finished in front of him.
The President of the IAAF
specially came to the press
conference to announce that
Bolt was the fastest man in
the world, the new face of
world athletics, and, in general,
a good person. Usain
disagreed with the statement
that he was perfection itself,
and assured everyone that he
needed more years of work to
achieve the status of a great
athlete.
“I was a little bit worried
about how well prepared my
rivals were and so I began
the race with only victory on
mind” said Bolt “But I was
lucky in that I had a good start
and from then on everything
just fell into place. I’m proud