Come in number 2612, it’s time to deliver. Again. Usain Bolt, the man eternally cast as carrying athletics on his shoulders, and now also prevailed on to get Brazil enthused about the sport, brought the curtain up on his tilt at a historic triple double with a sluggish start but a comfortable finish.
Rather like the Olympic Stadium crowd the previous day, Bolt took some time to get going but by the end he and they were looking forward to a 100m showdown with Justin Gatlin that will be one of the highlights of a Games he hopes will cement his legacy.
Greeted with shrill cheers and acknowledging almost full stands that left the watching IAAF president, Sebastian Coe, much happier than he would have been on Thursday, Bolt acknowledged his public, raised a finger to his lips and got down to business.
“It wasn’t the best start. I felt kind of slow. I’m not used to running this early at any championship. Hopefully tomorrow I’ll come out and I’ll feel much better, much smoother,” he said, after winning his heat in 10.07sec, the fourth fastest time in qualifying.
Yet all of a sudden everyone, from Coe to the watching volunteers and the crowd, was smiling. As he pushed his way through the media presence that quadruples every time he appears, Bolt added: “I’m feeling good, I’m happy. Now it’s all about execution and getting it right when it comes to the finals. There are going to be some fast semi-finals.”
The fastest qualifier, for what it’s worth at this stage of the competition, was Gatlin. The American, hamfistedly cast as the twice-banned bogeyman to Bolt’s saviour at the Beijing world championships last year where he lost out by a fraction, was also heartily cheered.
“It was easy, man. Controlled the race from the beginning, stayed strong. I feel the best I have all season,” he said after a time of 10.01 in a race in which he was easing down for the last 20 metres.
Inevitably, Gatlin was asked again about his USA team-mate Lilly King’s comments last week. In the midst of rising rhetoric about a new sporting cold war in the pool, King hit out not only at Russian rival Yulia Efimova but her own team-mates.
“Do I think people who have been caught doping should be on the team? They shouldn’t,” she said. “It is just something that needs to be set in stone.”
A hitherto relaxed Gatlin, who has not reproduced the consistent excellence of last season but still believes he can win here, stiffened slightly.
“I don’t even know who Lilly King is. She does swimming and not track and field, so I’m not worried about that. I have confidence in my own policies,” said the sprinter, who continues to divide opinion between those who believe he has served his time and those who bristle at his presence.
“Usada has done a great job, Wada has done a great job. I’ve come back and done what I need to do. I’ve worked hard just like everyone else,” he added.
Both Bolt, coming into this Olympics as so often before off the back of injury concerns (this time over a hamstring tear) but unshakable in his belief he will peak again when it matters, and Gatlin are trying to talk down the extent to which their 100m showdown will be influenced by last summer.
Gatlin, who was too tight in Beijing, said he was relaxed this time around. “In 2004 I was such a young guy, I wasn’t really anticipating anything. In 2012 coming back and making the podium again, it was like a reset for me,” he said. “Coming into 16, I’m older and wiser. I’m at the end of the season, the end of my career. Just have fun.”
All the other medal contenders, including the American Trayvon Bromell, the Canadian Andre De Grasse and Bolt’s Jamaican team-mate Yohan Blake, all made it safely through.
But only two of Great Britain’s three sprinters qualified for Sunday’s semi-finals. CJ Ujah came second in his heat in 10.13, while James Dasaolu made it through as one of eight fastest losers after running 10.18 in Bolt’s heat.
“Obviously running against Usain Bolt everyone is watching him, but for me I’ve always got to try focus on my own race and try to execute,” he said. “I didn’t get out of the blocks too well but the second half of my race was strong so I know there’s definitely more to come if I can get that front first-half of my race.”
There was disappointment for James Ellington, who almost fell out of the blocks and could not recover. “I’m in really good shape, I just messed the start of the race up. I literally nearly fell flat on my face. The start’s been the weak part of my race all year, it’s been 50/50 and sometimes I get it right and sometimes I don’t,” he said. “And today when I really wanted to get it right, I got it wrong.”
After making it through to the next day’s competition alongside Bolt, Dasaolu insisted he was just another fellow competitor. Maybe to him, not to anyone else in the stadium.
