Usain Bolt undone

Such is the power and performance levels of Usain Bolt that very few people expect him to lose if he really wants to win a race. There are that many racing opportunities for him to get involved with there will always be times when he is not at his best or fully focussed but you get the impression that if Usain Bolt wants to win a race, all he has to do is turn up. That illusion has now been shattered though and the sad thing is that Usain only has himself to blame.
False start rule is a tough one
The rules of ‘false starts’ in athletics have changed recently, implementing a harsher penalty on the first person to break before the starting gun goes off. The only thing is, Usain Bolt welcomed these changes and indicated that he didn’t think they would be an issue for him. Usain Bolt clearly has earned the right to have confidence and arrogance in himself but the comments he made at the time of the rule change have clearly turned around to bite him on the backside.
“For me, I have no problem, I never false-started yet. It will be better for the sport.”
“It will be a problem for some people but not for me.”
A big loss for Bolt
That seems big words and no doubt Bolt will be kicking himself for losing out on his 100m World Championship title in such a silly manner. Everyone can make mistakes and the nerves associated with such a major event can have an impact on an athlete’s ability to break quickly but making comments of this nature have definitely been the undoing of many athletes, with Usain Bolt being the latest athlete to wish their feet could run as quickly as their mouth can.
In the grand scheme of things, it is not as if Bolt will lose out too much. It is not as though he has become embroiled in some form of drug or sex scandal that will scare the sponsors away but he has definitely lost an air of invincibility that he carried with him. Bolt will be hoping to bounce back quickly in the 200m event at the World Championship but if he doesn’t, you can bet that some people in the sport will be raising questions over whether Bolt’s grip on the sport is slipping away. Only time will tell if the false start was just a blip or the beginning of a number of slips.