Usain Bolt renewed his world record

Dinesh Weerawansa reporting from Germany

Jamaican Usain Bolt renewed his world record for men’s 100m with a blistering 9.58-second dash on the second day of the 12th IAAF World Championship at the Olympic Stadium here last night.

The sprint merchant earned USD 160,000 for a job well done under ten seconds - US$60,000 as prize for the gold medal and a bonus of US$100,000 for the World record.

As expected, it was a keen tussle for track supremacy with all eight finalists having personal bests of bellow ten seconds. With a performance that defies imagination, Bolt bettered his own world mark in men’s 100m world record to push his arch rival and the defending champion Tyson Gay to the second place.

It was nice to see the 22-year-old Jamaican knocking a mind-numbing 0.11 second from the 9.69 record he set at the Olympic Games in Beijing exactly one year ago. Incidentally, the writer was there in China when Bolt erased compatriot Asafa Powel’s world record at the Bird’s Nest.