Zeenews Sports Bureau

London: The marquee event of the London Olympics-men’s 100m final lived up to the hype as the defending champion Usian Bolt of Jamaica retained his title creating a new Olympic record (9.63s) beating Yohan Blake who took silver and Justin Gatlin who clinched bronze.

All eyes were on Usain Bolt, Lane 7 as the best runners of the planet took off for the ultimate glory, but some of the eyes would have deferred to a certain Yohan Blake in Lane 5 but again it was Justin Gatlin who had the fastest start taking lead and maintaining it for the first 30m before Yohan Blake and Tyson Gay inched ahead.

By 50m Bolt had picked up his pace and he then smothered the field with an astonishing sprint and solid finish to leave behind Blake a good 2-3 metres behind thus retaining his 100m titles and becoming only the second runner after the iconic Carl Lewis to achieve the feat.

The Jamaican collected his fourth career Olympic gold ahead of world champion teammate Yohan Blake, who clocked 9.75 for silver, with 2004 champion Justin Gatlin taking the bronze in 9.79 seconds.

“I knew it was going to be like this,” Bolt said with typical self-assuredness.

“I was slightly worried about my start, I slipped a little in the blocks. I don’t have the best reactions, but I secured it and that’s the key,” said Bolt.

“My coach told me to stop worrying about the start and concentrate on the end because that’s my best,” he added.

The final result:

GOLD BOLT Usain – 9.63 OR
SILVER BLAKE Yohan – 9.75=PB
BRONZE GATLIN Justin- 9.79 PB
GAY Tyson – 9.80 SB
BAILEY Ryan – 9.88=PB
MARTINA Churandy-9.94
THOMPSON Richard 9.98
POWELL Asafa 11.99

The line-up for the final was:

Lane 2: THOMPSON Richard (T&T)
Lane 3: POWELL Asafa (JAM)
Lane 4: GAY Tyson (USA)
Lane 5: BLAKE Yohan (JAM)
Lane 6: GATLIN Justin (USA)
Lane 7: BOLT Usain (JAM)
Lane 8: BAILEY Ryan (USA)
Lane 9: MARTINA Churandy (NED)

With IANS inputs