USAIN BOLT believes he could have run 9.42 seconds in the 100 metres if he had access to the carbon-plated super-spikes used by today’s sprinters.
The Jamaican superstar set the current world record of 9.58 seconds at the 2009 world championships in Berlin, breaking his own previous mark of 9.69 from the Beijing Olympics.
His record has now stood for 16 years, surpassing the 14-year duration of Jim Hines’s 9.95 record set at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics.
Research conducted by Puma, Bolt’s sponsor during his dominant career, predicted he would run 9.42 wearing modern spike technology.
Bolt fully endorsed this assessment during an event ahead of the world championships in Tokyo.
He pointed to compatriot Shelly-Anne Fraser-Pryce’s continued improvement with advanced footwear as evidence of the technology’s impact.
Bolt suggested he might have continued competing had he known spike technology would advance so significantly.
His compatriot Kishane Thompson ran 9.75 seconds at the Jamaican championships in June, the fastest time in a decade.
Despite Thompson’s performance making him the sixth-fastest sprinter ever, Bolt remains confident his record is safe for now.
Bolt retired in 2017 with six Olympic and seven world individual gold medals across the 100m and 200m events.
No Jamaican man has won a global sprint title since Bolt’s double victory at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Thompson nearly ended that drought last year, finishing just five thousandths of a second behind Noah Lyles in the Olympic 100m final.
Bolt believes either Thompson or fellow Jamaican Oblique Seville could win Sunday’s 100 metres final.
He expressed excitement about attending his first global athletics event since his 2017 farewell in London.
Bolt mentioned he might present medals depending on who wins the competition.
He addressed his relationship with American sprinter Noah Lyles, acknowledging their past social media disagreements.
Bolt compared Lyles to his former rival Justin Gatlin, noting Gatlin belonged to a different era of track rivalry.
The sprint legend emphasized that trash talk never affected his performance during his competitive career. – Reuters