to View - Griffith College Dublin

sport |
sport |
Bolt to the Future
by Shane Quinn
“There have been numerous attempts to find
drug abuse in Bolt”
32
The 23-year-old record breaker has gone a
huge distance in lifting a sport that was
threatening to go under due to extensive
drug abuse.
Usain Bolt is in need of a much-needed rest after
recording the most successful sprinting season in
the sport’s history. The “human lighting bolt” beat
his own world 100m record with a 9.58 second
sprint at the Berlin championships in August. He
also trumped his previous 200m world-record of
19.38, by notching an incredible 19.19 in the same
event.
“Bolt’s races at the
world championships
need to be re-run and
viewed in slow motion..”
Not since the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, has the world
seen a line-up as impressive as the one that took
to the starting blocks in the German capital. Tyson
Gay held the two fastest times this year coming into
the race; Usain Bolt held the world record; Dwain
Chambers was staging a welcome comeback and
wanted to make a statement; and Asafa Powell was,
well, Asafa Powell.
Blink and you’d miss it. Bolt’s sprinting at the world
championships needed to be replayed in slow
motion to truly appreciate the full power of the
runner. He finished the race with only 48 strides,
whilst Gay trailed behind needing over 140 paces.
While people were quick to commend Bolt for his
record-breaking speed, many were riddled with
suspicion, as if his performances were to good to be
true.
The Americans couldn’t find the secret to Bolt’s
success, no drugs were found in his system, yet the
critics still questioned him. When asked about his
diet, he told the press he ate a lot “of yams”, so
that is it, case closed. If Gay really wants to outrun
Bolt in the London Olympics in 2012 he better start
scoffing those yams.
The question on people’s minds is will Gay
be able to live up to his recent claim and
take out Bolt in the 2012 Olympics. The
chances seem low considering all that Bolt
has achieved in the past two years, added
to Gay being four years than his rival.
“He told the press
he ate a lot ‘of
yams’”
Sceptics believe Bolt has an unfair
advantage over Gay due to his long legs
and wide frame. An athlete’s ability lies
more in their mental sharpness, genetic
ability, leg power, technique and numerous
other factors.
The Jamaican’s advantage lies in his muscle
twitch cells. The secret to his lighting limb
movements is in the ability of his muscle
fibres, allowing his arms and legs to move
at quicker speeds than an average athlete.
Bolt’s real secret is that he hits the ground
with greater force than others.
If Tyson wants to outrun Gay, he needs
to pound that surface harder, but it may
be impossible for him. Still, Gay’s effort
in Shanghai of equalling Bolt’s first 100m
record in Beijing of 9.69 seconds has shown
early signs of him catching up.
So far there have been numerous attempts
to find drug abuse in Bolt and with nothing
coming back positive. We can appreciate
this scepticism comes at a time when
athletics has suffered a long history of
discredited world records since the 1980s
due to extensive substance abuse.
The media got the right reply from Bolt
recently. After his performance in Berlin
Bolt explained to an American interviewer
in relation to the sceptics: “I don’t care,
because I know I’m healthy, I’m clean, I‘ve
done tests, I’ve done so many tests I’ve lost
count.”
Bolt was born and raised in the poverty
stricken area of Trelawny Parish in the
Jamaican countryside, where children
gather at the village tap to collect water.
An old woman living in the village said of
Bolt: “His three gold medals [in the Beijing
Olympics] brought us running water. Now
we are praying for another gold medal to
fix up the roads!”
Detractors will attempt to continuously
defame Bolt, in a bid to forward spurious
claims of unfair advantage. It is all
begrudging nonsense. The fact remains, all
he takes “are yams”.