Bolt can be ‘ultimate sprinter’
THREE-TIME world 100m world champion and former world record holder American Maurice Greene believes Jamaica’s double world record holder Usain Bolt has what it takes to be the ultimate sprinter.
“Usain will probably go down as the ultimate sprinter ’cause his 100m is going to get faster, his 200m is going to get faster and if he decides to run the 400, he will shatter that record too,” said Greene, who is in Jamaica as a special guest for tomorrow’s sixth staging of the Douglas Forrest Invitational Meet at the National Stadium.
Bolt established new world records of 9.58 and 19.19 seconds in both events while becoming the first Jamaican to win the double at the 12th IAAF World Championships in Berlin last year.
Greene believes Bolt will lower those marks in years to come, even if he doesn’t improve his sprinting technique.
“We haven’t seen his true capabilities… He still has a boy’s body (and) I believe once his body starts changing and starts to be a man’s body, about 26, 27, if he decides he’s going to keep on running, who knows what he’s going to do then,” Greene said.
The American argued that once Bolt starts running five or six competitive 200m races per season, his speed endurance will improve, which will in turn help him to run even faster in the 100m.
Meanwhile, the current 400 metres world record is 43.18 seconds set by American Michael Johnson in 1999, and Greene thinks it’s only a matter of time before the 23-year-old Bolt breaks that mark as well.
“He will shatter that record also, but that’s only if he wants to do it,” the five-time (three 100m, one 200m and one 60m) World Champion reasoned.
“We’ve seen him jog 19 seconds, so just say in the 400 metres he comes through the first 200 at 20-flat… he just jogged so he’s really not that tired, he’s not that fatigued, so just put a little bit on it, you’re going to tell me he can’t come back in 21-flat or 22 seconds, what will that time be? It’s going to be crazy!” Greene posited.
Just last month, Johnson — a two-time Olympics 400m champion — also backed Bolt to become the first athlete to simultaneously hold world records over 100, 200 and 400 metres.
“I think we can say that records will be broken, but I would venture to say that nobody is ever going to hold the world records at 100, 200 and 400 again if he (Bolt) does it. I don’t think there will ever be a person that could do that,” Johnson said during a visit to Jamaica to shoot a documentary of the Jamaican sprinter.
In the meantime Greene, who posted 52 sub-10 clockings in the 100m during his glittering career, has criticised the new false-start rule introduced by the IAAF, saying it will result in slower times.