Usain Bolt secures spectacular 'triple-triple' after Jamaica win 4x100m relay at Rio Olympic Games
- The Jamaican had already won gold medals in the 100m and 200m events at the 2016 Games in Rio
- Usain Bolt won all three events at the previous two Olympic Games, in Beijing in 2008 and London in 2012
- The 30-year-old was competing in his last event at an Olympic Games when he ran on Friday night
Rondel Sorrillo's impact on the athletics landscape has been fairly limited in Rio.
A sprinter from Trinidad and Tobago, he was eliminated in the heats of the 100 metres and failed to progress beyond the semi-finals of the 200m.
But when he ran his relay leg on Friday night he could at least reflect on seventh place in the knowledge that he had managed to achieve something that proved beyond any other athlete.
Usain Bolt has achieved something no athlete before has managed by completing the 'triple triple' at the Rio Games
Bolt crossing the finish line as he manages to secure the ninth Olympic gold medal of his stunning career on Friday
The Jamaican won the 100m and 200m events at Rio prior to victory in the relay event with his Jamaica team-mates
Great Britain left disheartened after only managing a fifth place finish after the United States were disqualified
Because Sorrillo is the only runner to have finished ahead of the greatest Olympian in history in Olympic competition, his victory in the opening round of the 200m in Beijing 2008 representing the one tiny blemish on an otherwise perfect record for Usain St Leo Bolt.
Played 23, won 22. That is the remarkable strike rate for Bolt across the heats, semi-finals and finals he contested in Beijing, London and Rio, victory with three fellow Jamaicans on Friday night completing that unprecedented, astonishing triple-triple.
Sorrillo won’t get too carried away with himself, of course. Having set a world record to win his first 100m gold, Bolt approached that opening heat of the 200m eight years ago as a bit of a recovery run. He ambled home in a relatively pedestrian 20.64sec to Sorrillo’s 20.58, Sorrillo then failing to get beyond the next round while Bolt went on to stun the world with another world record. Nobody was more stunned that night than Michael Johnson, by then the owner of the second-fastest 200m time on the planet.
The 30-year-old (second right) paced past the rest of the field as he ran the final leg of the race on Friday night in Rio
Bolt and his team-mates (left to right) Yohan Blake, Asafa Powell and Nickel Ashmeade celebrate their triumph on Friday
The quartet dance in celebration as the Jamaican team react to capturing Olympic gold yet again in the 4x100m event
Bolt has been dazzling us ever since, and it was with more than a hint of sadness that his Olympic odyssey ended on Friday night. More than a little regret that come Tokyo in 2020 there will be a gaping 6ft 5in void in the showcase events.
‘I am legend, bask in my glory,’ Bolt declared with a mischievous glint in his eye after 200m gold in London and never in 120 years of Olympic history has there been anyone quite like him.
The concern will be finding someone who even comes close to possessing Bolt’s magnetism; never mind his magnificence in running faster than any other human.
The 30-year-old has inspired Brazil and created interest in an Olympics that had otherwise been apathetically treated
Bolt performs his trademark lightning bolt celebration after emerging victorious in the 4x100m race in Rio
The Jamaica team begin a lap of honour around the track after securing the gold medal in style on Friday night
Even in Brazil, where there has been apathy towards athletics given the price of the tickets, they have taken instantly to Bolt.
Indeed, until he made his final journey along the home straight of this track, collecting the baton from Nickel Ashmeade before giving his audience one last demonstration of that long, rolling stride, the crowd that had gathered inside the stadium was never more excited than when they saw Bolt emerge to collect his medal for the 200m the previous night.
‘This one is extra special,’ Bolt tweeted shortly afterwards, and it might just be that he takes more pride in successfully defending his individual titles for a second time when he knows that Nesta Carter’s doping case could conclude with Jamaica being stripped of relay gold from Beijing.
On Friday night, at least, nobody was taking this relay victory away from him, and Bolt celebrated in his own inimitable style as Olympic rivals trailed in his wake one last time.
Among them was a British quartet that finished a creditable fifth.
And Rondel Sorrillo, a 30-year-old former student of the University of Kentucky and the one guy who can say ‘Hey, I beat him once’.
Bolt waiting to be handed the baton as the Jamaican prepares to set off on the last leg of his spectacular Olympic career
The Jamaican team huddle after the nation won the Olympic gold medal for the third straight Games in the event
Bolt shows off the Jamaican flag stitched into his uniform as he demonstrates his pride at representing his homeland
Adam Gemili (top lane) struggled to match the pace of the other sprinters over the final 100m of the race
Great Britain's athletes gather into a huddle and console themselves after a difficult race in Rio for the quartet
Bolt poses with the Jamaican and Brazilian flags after celebrating his victory in the 4x100m race on Friday night
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/othersports/article-3749984/Usain-Bolt-secures-spectacular-triple-triple-Jamaica-win-4x100m-relay-Rio-Olympic-Games.html#ixzz4HrniR0LJ
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