Usain Bolt will find it tough to repeat the sprint double at the London Olympics because there is stiffer competition than four years ago, former 100m champion Linford Christie warned on Friday. Bolt, the fastest man on the planet, won the 100m and 200m Olympic titles in Beijing in 2008 in world-record times and then ran even faster in both events at the world championships in Berlin in 2009.
Briton Christie, the 1992 Olympic 100m gold medallist, said Bolt remained the favourite to defend his titles, but would face a strong field in London.
“Bolt is fast but the competition will be cut-throat this time,” Christie told reporters during a visit to Bangalore to promote a marathon. “There is Tyson Gay, Asafa Powell, Nesta Carter and others. The way Bolt won in 2008…it may not happen that way. Someone, somewhere will come up.”
Christie slammed the way Bolt was disqualified from the 100m at last year’s world championships in Daegu, South Korea, due to one false start. “It is not good,” he said of the existing rule. “It takes away the explosive starts that are such an important part of sprints. Now the athletes are just waiting back for the starter’s pistol to go before they launch from the blocks. “I think we should go back to the two foul-starts rule.”
The Jamaican Bolt, speaking in the Czech town of Ostrava on Wednesday, declared that he was again the man to beat at the London Games.
“It’s the Olympics, I’m going there to do great things,” the 25-year-old said. “I want to repeat what I did in Beijing. If I’m in great shape, no one will beat me in London, that’s for sure.”
