Jamaican Olympic champion Bolt considers new events
Usain Bolt’s career to date has been impressive to say the least. He has won multiple gold medals in the 100m, 200m, and the 4x100m, he is the Olympic and world record holder in all of those events, and now he is looking to expand his repertoire to include the 400m, and the long jump after the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
At the World Junior Championships in 2002 Bolt became the competition’s youngest-ever gold medallist. In 2004 he ran the 200m in 19.93 seconds to set a new world junior record, and become the first junior to run it in under 20 seconds. In 2008 at the Beijing Olympics Bolt became the world’s fastest man with a time of 9.683, exactly one year later in Berlin he improved that world record time to 9.58. He is also the first person to claim both the 100m and 200m world records at the same time.
Bolt is looking to defend both his 100m and 200m titles in London, but after that he is open to the possibility of competing in different events.
"My aim is to defend both of my titles, I have to focus on those first and then after London, I will decide if I will try either of those events," said Bolt. "I really think I will be a good long jumper, that's what I think, I don't know what my coach will think, maybe he'll say try 400 meters."
His coach, Glen Mills, thinks that Bolt will make an excellent 400m runner, but Bolt himself seems more interested in the long jump.
"I did long jump in (school) sports day but it wasn't anything serious, I went to Ostrava one year and I tried it out and jumped quite a distance, in my tracksuit. I decided I'd like to try this before retiring, at the end of my career," said Bolt.
Mike Powell, world long jump record holder said that Bolt could very well break his record of 8.95 meters set in 1991.
In early August, Bolt shut his own season down because of a back injury. He missed the final three Diamond League events including the final in Brussels. Tyson g*y went on to claim the 100m Diamond Trophy, running the final in a time of 9.79.
Bolt doesn’t want to risk injury before the 2011 season or the 2012 Olympic Games in London, nor does he want to see any of his competitors fall to injury.
“I want everyone to be in the best of shape next year so when the showdown comes there will be no doubt,” said Bolt referring specifically to Tyson g*y, but also anyone else who seeks to challenge his world record.
Bolt will have to work hard to get back into shape after taking it easy while resting his back. In a new book he claims that he often misses training, and has a penchant for partying.
"In Kingston, I could do whatever I wanted – freedom. If there were gold medals for partying I'd have won them all. On a good night out, I would have a couple of bottles of Guinness and still go off to training the next day," said Bolt.
In his final Diamond League event of the season Bolt lost a 100m race for just the second time in his career when he lost to Tyson g*y. Later he claimed the loss was because he didn’t train as hard as he should have.
Bolt will begin his training in preparation for next year’s World Championships on 4 October in Kingston, Jamaica and will not compete in the Commonwealth Games in Delhi which goes from 6 August to 12 August.
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