Athletics history for Bolt, Fraser-Pryce
Usain Bolt is, yet again, perfect. And with three gold medals in Moscow, the Jamaican great became the most successful athlete in the 30-year history of the world championships.
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The 4x100-metre relay gold yesterday erased the memories of the 100m title he missed out on in the South Korean city of Daegu two years ago because of a false start. And, in combination with a similar 100m-200m-4x100m triple from Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Bolt was instrumental in giving Jamaica the first ever sweep in those six sprint events.
The tall Jamaican was trailing American Justin Gatlin when he got the baton on the anchor leg, but a botched US handover and his superlative speed were enough to see him, and his country win.
Twenty minutes earlier, Bolt’s compatriot, Fraser-Pryce, became the first woman in world championship history to sweep the sprint events, anchoring Jamaica to gold in the 4x100-metre relay.
Unlike Bolt, Fraser-Pryce got the baton with a big lead. With her pink hair extensions swaying in the air behind her, she kept on building on it to cross in a championship record of 41.29 seconds, helping Jamaica to regain the title.
The Jamaicans timed a championship record 41.29 seconds to take gold while France won silver (42.73sec) and defending champions the United States the bronze (42.75sec).
However, the French were later disqualified following a protest from the British for 'changing outside their sector on the second baton exchange' and had an appeal against the disqualification turned down.
The British took the bronze instead, although, their 'victory' came too late for the medals ceremony while the Americans moved up to silver.
