Events | 2009.05.18
Bolt bags 150m record in 'street sprint'
It was not just fans standing yards from the world\'s fastest man who were banking on a burst of adrenaline from yesterday\'s 150m "street sprint" in Manchester, which Usain Bolt completed in a world record 14.35 seconds.
London 2012 organisers, Olympic gold medallists and international athletics chiefs were all hoping the unconventional race would help spark a wave of innovation that will bring the sport to a new, younger, hipper audience.
In the event, the triple Olympic gold-medallist Bolt did not disappoint, cruising to victory in the fastest time run over 150m, breaking the world record of 14.8 seconds which has stood since 1983. "It is one more to the tally," said Bolt. "I\'m not in the best shape and I still have a lot of work to do but I am getting there."
Brendan Foster, the former athlete who established the Great North Run and came up with the idea of adding the street sprint to yesterday\'s Great Manchester Run, said it would help to give the sport a shot in the arm.
There are high hopes that 100m and 200m world record holder Bolt, who spent Friday at Manchester United\'s Carrington training ground where Cristiano Ronaldo greeted him with his trademark archer celebration, can help reconnect football-obsessed youngsters with athletics.
Foster said he was inspired in the mid-1960s by seeing Peter Snell compete at Gateshead and wanted to do the same for a new generation by bringing the likes of Bolt and Haile Gebrselassie, the Ethiopian who holds the world record for the marathon and who competed in the Great Manchester Run 10k, to the streets."Some people have criticised it, but if I stand accused of bringing the two greatest athletes of our lifetime onto the streets of Manchester, then I\'m guilty," he said. The dilemma facing track and field was best highlighted by the situation in Beijing where IOC president Jaques Rogge criticised Bolt for showing a lack of respect to his fellow athletes following his victories in the 100m and 200m.
But his self assurance and memorable celebrations endeared the runner to young fans brought up on a diet of Premier League football. The IOC has called on bidding cities for the 2016 Games to come up with fresh ideas to bring the Games to a younger audience. In the hours leading up to the 6.20pm race, it had rained heavily with gusts of wind yet the foul weather did little to deter the thousands of fans who congregated in the city to watch Bolt compete in a street race on a usually traffic-clogged main thoroughfare. The crowds were six-deep and as the starting gun fired a collective silence momentarily descended and it appeared as if everyone was photographing the as the Jamaican athlete and others took off.
Joan Knight, who is of Jamaican heritage, was waving the national flag in support two hours before his race began on a specially raised platform that took a day to build but just breathless seconds for Bolt to sprint across.
She said of Bolt: "As a person he is absolutely fantastic and as a Jamaican he is out of this world. I am so happy that he is here in Manchester and I think he will be an excellent role model for young people and he will inspire them to achieve. It is so important to have this here on the street because it is free rather than being in a stadium."
In the lead up to the race, Usain Bolt spoke of the importance of street athletics in spurring young people to take up athletics: "It\'s unique, something new for the sport and it will help attract youngsters into athletics.
"I like to please the crowd and show them the person I am. I\'m just going to go out there and have some fun with the crowd and perform to the best of my ability. If I want to be a legend, I have to keep working at it. That\'s what keeps me going."
For more information, please visit
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/may/17/usain-bolt-street-sprint
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