9.69
Usain Bolt
August 16th 2008
Olympic Games
Beijing, China
There are few moments in sport that suck the air from your lungs and make your heart pound, but no-one who saw the 21-year-old Jamaican Usain Bolt devastate the field in the 100m final at the Beijing Olympics will ever forget the feeling.
He had loped through the heats like the tallest kid on school sports day, but when the chips were down, so was his head as he started the blue-riband race perfectly. By 70m the rest were behind him, and all that was in front was history. He was celebrating metres before the line, leaving the world wondering how fast he might have gone had he kept running.
As it was, he was through in 9.69, and it looked effortless. There will be more to come from Bolt, but he has already provided a moment to rival Michael Johnson's immortal 200m run in Atlanta.