PAUL MBUGA

IF Usain Bolt wins the men’s 100m final in Beijing, you will be hardpressed to find a man who has so dramatically collided with greatness before.

I write “collided” not to denigrate Bolt’s ability, far from it.

But his journey from 200m hotshot to 100m champion is a story that makes for an improbable read.
This is how it happened.

Bolt ran in the 100m at the Jamaican International in May merely to gauge how his speed for future runs in the 200m was progressing.

Actually, so understated were Bolt’s intentions for that night, he got his father, a coffee production manager, to accompany him “just for the ride”.

By the time he was through with his ‘practice’ run, he had clocked an astonishing time of 9.76 seconds. Only fellow Jamaican Asafa Powell had run quicker, but only by 0.02 seconds
A few weeks later, Bolt made the trip to New York for the Reebok Grand Prix.

Again, his intention was to simply gauge his speed in the 200m. To do that, he felt running the 100m was a “good idea”. By the time he had crossed the tape at 9.72 seconds, he had set a new world record over the distance.

Bolt is peculiar in the sense that achieving greatness in the 100m was never ever a stated aim.
Anyone who has watched him will attest he is tall and has an awkward gait.

These factors are deemed to be disadvantageous for an aspiring 100m runner but Bolt’s emergence has ensured athletics pundits will have to re-write their running handbooks.

It is his coach, Glen Mills, who prodded and his willingness to defy convention (the 100m is not for lanky athletes) may soon see Bolt re-brand the 100m men’s Olympic champion.

First off, the Jamaican is incredibly coy and not given to banter.

100m champions have too often been cast as brash beings, the pinnacle of manhood; whom all men envy and aspire to and all women must crave for.
Carl Lewis, Leroy Burrell and Donovan Bailey typified this. Lewis was widely viewed as not only the world’s premier 100m runner in his prime, but also the ultimate male –– before the drugs scandal.

Maurice Greene, who once held the world record, never hesitated to show off his formidable biceps whenever he won a race while the winner of the gold medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics, Justin Gatlin, was considered the perfect metrosexual even before David Beckham.

Bolt wouldn’t give a damn about that.
He possesses a lean, straightforward frame, keeps rather unkempt hair and only wants to play video games after running.

And do not be afraid to vest your hope and emotions in him only to have your heart cruelly broken by a performance-enhancing drugs scandal.

Bolt has declined invitations to train in America, preferring to do so in Jamaica. After the Marion Jones experience, even he knows that in the American “system”, it is drugs which come after the athletes, and not vice-versa.