Greatest Race of All Time?

It seemed that every TV in London last night was tuned in to BBC at 9:50pm to watch Usain Bolt defend his Gold Medal in the 100m final last night. And around each TV were crowds of spectators anxious to see the race. We got to the local pub, “The Globe” early to get a good seat. It was about 9:15 or so and the bar was pretty much what you would expect on a typical Sunday night. Not a huge crowd, not a great deal of noise. But as it got closer to race time, people began to swarm into the bar trying to get a good spot in front of a TV. By race time, it was packed with a huge crowd, many Americans with our group of GW students, and every television was showing the race with the volume turned all the way up. Just before the race it was tense with everyone picking who they thought would when or who they wanted to win. But it was clear who would win this race, the fastest man in the world, Usain Bolt. What an amazing show he put on for those quick 9.63 seconds. Bolt once again showed that when he is at his best, no one can touch him. Yet you have to feel for the other runners. Runners 2-4 were separated by tenths of seconds. Tyson Gay, one of the USA’s top sprinters ran a 9.8 flat but it wasn’t good enough to get a medal. Fellow American Justin Gaitlin beat Gay by .01 seconds to take the bronze. Just four or 5 years ago 9.8 would have been close to a record and at least a medal, most likely the gold. But at London 2012 it just wasn’t good enough to beat Bolt. You have to wonder if that was the greatest 100m race of all time. You had the fastest 4 men in the world all racing each other. Three Jamaicans and three Americans. There was a lot of hype around the race and it definitely did not disappoint.

-Jamal Jones

Posted by olympian on August 6, 2012 | Filed under: GWSB News.