Foreign sports personality of the year: Usain Bolt

Foreign sports personali

By ALLON SINAI
There is something about the 100 meters which captivates people across the world, and not just sports fans. The simplicity of the race mesmerizes even those who pay little attention to sports throughout the year. After all, running is a common denominator to all humans. Whether we are chasing a bus or playing with one of our children, we all run on almost a daily basis. Usain Bolt also runs every day, but he does so in a speed and style the world has never seen before. The 23-year-old Jamaican became a household name last year after his stunning performance at the Beijing Olympics, winning the 100m and 200m, as well as the 4x100m relay, in unbelievable new world record times. Bolt completely blew away the competition, clocking a time of 9.69 seconds in the 100m, before breaking Michael Johnson's 12-year-old 200m record, crossing the line in 19.30s. Bolt could have retired there and then and would have been remembered as one of the greatest sprinters of all-time. It seemed to be almost impossible for him to live-up to the standard he set. However, he showed this year that for him nothing is impossible. Many experts were curious to know just how fast Bolt might have gone if he had not begun celebrating in the final meters of his world-record 100m run in Beijing. At the World Championships in Berlin in August he gave his jaw-dropping answer. The unorthodox 1.96-meter, 95 kilogram sprinter clocked a time of 9.58s, the biggest improvement to the record since electronic timing became mandatory for record ratification in 1977. Four days later, Bolt also bettered his 200m mark by 11 hundredths, setting an astounding time of 19.19s. With his nonchalant manner and eternal smile, Bolt has regenerated interest in a struggling sport and, at 23, he has got an entire plant eagerly waiting on what he'll do next. Race times which were once regarded as fantasy have been made a reality by Bolt. He has made us rethink the limits of human speed. At the moment, Bolt has us believing that there is simply no limit and that is just as amazing as any of his records.