Usain Bolt’s time finally runs out, but he departs as the greatest champion of all

Usain Bolt’s time finally runs out, but he departs as the greatest champion of all

The roar was not the same. This time around the cacophony of Super Saturday had a sadder, even an angrier note. Five years on from securing his legend at the 2012 Olympics, Usain Bolt had hoped to bow out of the sport he has for so long electrified, with one last trademark burst of unanswerable speed and joy. In the event, his last act as a solo athlete was to take a bronze medal behind his long-time rival, the American Justin Gatlin.

Few athletes know more about time than Bolt. Having chased it down and exploded it into unlikely tenths and hundredths for more than a decade, it finally caught up with him. His sweatshirt coming into the stadium before this final 100m race of a peerless career bore the motto“forever faster”, but his eyes and his manner told a slightly different story. He went through the motions of his pre-race hype routine, striking the poses, but his heart wasn’t quite in it.
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