London: Usain Bolt will be running his final event at The IAAF World Athletics Championship in London this week. The Sprint King from Jamaica has entertained his fans on the world stage.
The man will no longer be seen setting the track on fire once the World Championships conclude. His rivals, meanwhile, will be more than glad to bid farewell to a man who took athletics by storm.
Olympic gold medalist Peggy Fleming said “The first thing is to love your sport. Never do it to please someone else. It has to be yours.”
While Athletics have been marred by several doping scandals, the charismatic Bolt has been able to hold his own. The retirement of the legendary sprinter will pave way for many new athletes to announce themselves on the world stage.
Bolt’s retirement will certainly create a huge void. There has been no doubt that the tall Jamaican loves the sport and his medal tally speaks volume of his talent , his dedication for sport shows how far he has come in his glorious career.
From the time he won double individual gold at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, he has further gone on to win unprecedented six Olympic gold medals and also picking up 11 world titles.
Apart from medals, Bolt has also created world records of 9.58 and 19.19sec in the 100 and 200m respectively when winning in the 2009 Berlin world championships. The win was followed by consecutive world gold medals in the 100, 200 and 4x100m relay in 2011, 2013 and 2015, with the exception of a false start in the 100m in Daegu in 2011.
The 30-year-old finished with three gold medals at both the 2012 London Olympics and 2016 Rio Olympics, and the only fall he had in his career was when he was stripped of his 2008 Olympic relay gold after teammate Nesta Carter failed a drugs test.
As the Usain Bolt era comes to a close, it will be interesting to see whether any athlete can come close to matching Bolt's dominance and charisma on Track.
