Justin Gatlin won his second world Men's 100m title 12 years after his first to ruin eight-time Olympic champion Usain Bolt's final individual race.
Longtime rival Justin Gatlin held off a charging Bolt to win his first global 100m title since 2005 at the IAAF World Athletics Championships, London 2017, on Saturday night. It’s Bolt’s first loss in an Olympic or world 100m final aside from a false-start disqualification in 2011.
Gatlin clocked 9.92 seconds. American Christian Coleman took silver in 9.94, followed by Bolt in 9.95 seconds.
Bolt's 9.95 seconds equalled his best effort of 2017 but he always trailed.
The result wasn’t immediately clear to the naked eye. After several moments, the 2012 London Olympic Stadium scoreboard showed Gatlin in first place.
Gatlin - banned twice for doping - was booed before the race and celebrated wildly, holding his hands to his ears
Justin Gatlin, a 35-year-old who has been booed throughout the last two days, screamed and held an index finger to his mouth as the crowd hushed. Not only has Gatlin been chasing Bolt the last few years, but he also served a four-year doping ban from 2006 to 2010.
Coleman stormed out to an early led, and Bolt in the adjacent lane closed on him. But it was Gatlin, out in 8, who surpassed both of them with a perfect lean at the line and he has regained the Men's 100m world title
“I dreamed about this day,” Gatlin, choking up with emotion, i worked hard for this day. And it took for me to not be selfish and think about myself and think about others to give me that fight. I couldn’t see anything from lane 8,” Gatlin said. “From the starting line, it was a Coleman and Bolt show. I just
ran for my life.”
Usain Bolt finished his individual career with just a bronze medal.
As you read this, you are already in the post-Bolt era, with only a 4 x 100m relay to come, which satin his schedule as a kind of insurance policy against defeat in the 100m. But this Saturday night shocker was his real departure from the lone-wolf world of athletics sprinting, where he became the most globally recognised sportsman since Muhammad Ali, with a greater reach than Michael Jordan and like many other great athletes of this planet.
In total, Bolt’s work in finals in 100m and 200m World and Olympic finals since 2008 has consumed less than four minutes of the planet’s frayed attention span. His brilliance has been meted out in 10secs and 20secs chunks, with a false start in 2011 in South Korea the only blemish from his fantastic sports career. But in those bursts, spread across nine years, he has taken up permanent residence in the human imagination, as the embodiment of irresistible speed, packed into an endearing personality. His exuberance, and track devouring stride, have the been the biggest staging posts in world sport for almost a decade.
Usain Bolt understood this dynamic. Asked how he hoped to see his final dash reported, he said:
“Unbeatable. For me, that would be the biggest headline. Unbeatable. Unstoppable.”
Usain St Leo "Lightning" Bolt, born 21 August 1986) currently the fastest human in the world. He is the first person to hold both the 100 metres and 200 metres world records since fully automatic time became mandatory. He also holds the world record as a part of the 4 × 100 metres relay. He is the reigning Olympic champion in these three events. Because of his unprecedented dominance and achievements in sprint competition, he is widely considered to be the greatest sprinter of all time.
Bolt is the only sprinter to win Olympic 100 m and 200 m titles at three consecutive olympics (2008, 2012 and 2016), a feat referred to as the "triple double."
An eleven-time World Champion, he won consecutive World Championship 100 m, 200 m and 4 × 100 metres relay gold medals from 2009 to 2015, with the exception of a 100 m false start in 2011. He is the most successful athlete of the World Championships and was the first athlete to win three titles in both the 100 m and 200 m at the competition.
Usain Bolt improved upon his first 100 m world record of 9.69 with 9.58 seconds in 2009 – the biggest improvement since the start of electronic timing. He has twice broken the 200 metres world record, setting 19.30 in 2008 and 19.19 in 2009. He has helped Jamaica to three 4 × 100 metres relay world records, with the current record being 36.84 seconds set in 2012.