It was an untold story about a turning point in sprint history. The Jamaican superstar Usain Bolt recently explained how he changed his main event in early 2008 from 200/400 to 100/200 metres. During a great chat with his fellas Justin Gatlin and Rodney Green for the Ready-Set-Go Podcast, Bolt gave the details of his life-changing decision.
When he was on the way to the World Championships in Osaka (he mistakenly said 'after the champs' in the podcast), coach Glen Mills wanted to take him into the 200-400 full programme. But he doesn't want to be in because of the cruel training regime for one-lap event. Then, he made an offer to coach. What happened next? He told the story on the podcast:
[Before] the World Championships in Osaka, the coach said, "You need to get the gym, also you need to run 400 metres". He wanted to do me 400 metres. I said, "Oh coach, I’m not doing 400 metres". He goes, "Naah, you have to do 400 because it gonna help your 200 metres". Let's make a bet: Let me run one 100 metres. If I run fast, I'll [continue to] run 100 metres. If I run slow, I will do 400. Sure, he taught that I was going to run slow. So, I never forget that race: Me and Wallace (Spearmon) actually were in that race in Greece. We were talking about "I just wanna get 10.1 bro. It's quick enough". He was like, "If you have 10.1 that's excellent.
When I ran 10.03. You know, everybody was running a regular 9.9, 9.8 at the time. Wasn't like consistently 9.8, 9.7 He was Ok then, that’s how I got into it. If I had run like 10.2, I would be running 400 metres.
Usain Bolt focused on his "one-shot" race in Rethymno, Greece. He was registered for 100 metres in the Vardinigiannia Meet on Crete Island. On 18 July 2007, he started alongside two American sprinters, Wallace Spearmon and Leroy Dixon, and his training mate, Dwight Thomas. Despite his modest start, Bolt closed the race with a bang, clocking 10.03 ahead of Dixon (10.07) and Spearmon (10.20). That wasn't a joke and a real start for an illustrious chapter of his career.
Usain Bolt secured his first senior World medal the next month, then focused on 100-200 double in the following season. In his fifth pro 100 metres race, he broke his first world record (9.72) in New York, two months before the Beijing Games.
