Bolt clinches 100m gold medal in new olympic record

HE is the fastest man ever and he is again the fastest man in the world. It took the second fastest race of all time, but Usain Bolt has won the 100 metres final, beating countryman and world champion Yohan Blake. Bolt won in a time of 9.63s, with Blake almost a metre behind on the line in 9.75s and American Justin Gatlin in third with 9.79s. Bolt is the first man since Carl Lewis to win successive Olympic 100m gold medals and is now on track to complete the unprecedented double of winning the 100m and 200m in back-to-back Olympics. The pace was so hot it was also the fastest anyone had run to place third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh in an Olympics. Former world record holder Asafa Powell pulled up mid-race with a hamstring injury. And so the pecking order is reasserted. The world record holder who lost his world championship title when he was disqualified for a false start last year and was then beaten in the Jamaican trials by his young teammate Blake, Bolt has now dismissed the queries over whether he was falling back to the pack. He was again not as quick as others out of the blocks but he did not lose the ground he had in recent races, quickly hauling rivals in and surging to a lead that was unstoppable. Unlike in the semi-finals, Bolt ran to the end and did not showboat across the line. The showboating came before he ran and after the race as he partied round the track with his friend, training partner and silver medallist Blake. Bolt said he knew after his first round run that he was back and could defend his title. "I was happy, when I went out in the first round 'I felt I can do this'," he said after his win. "I was slightly worried about my start. I didn't want to false start again so I sat in the blocks a bit. "I didn't get the best reaction in the world, but I executed, that was the key. The coach said don't worry about it, the best part of your race is at the end.