Usain Bolt anchors Racers to victory in London
LONDON, England (AP) — Usain Bolt sprinted to a second Diamond League victory inside 24 hours in London, yesterday, in what could be his last race in England.
Exactly a year after the start of the 2012 Summer Games, Bolt anchored his Racers Track Club relay team to victory at the London leg of the Diamond League in the Olympic Stadium.
The Racers Track Club finished the 4×100 race in 37.74 seconds, a day after Bolt’s victory in the individual sprint in the London stadium where he swept three gold medals last year.
“We haven’t run a lot of relays together, but just being around each other we can understand each other and know how fast we are personally, so it worked out very well,” Bolt said.
The 26-year-old Bolt led teammates Mario Forsythe, Kemar Bailey-Cole and Warren Weir home ahead of France and Canada.
“I’m the team leader and I try to keep them focused and give them wisdom,” Bolt said.
About 60,000 fans packed into the Olympic Stadium which temporarily reopened to host the Diamond League meet before closing again to be revamped into a multisport stadium, which will be used by Premier League team West Ham from the 2016-17 season.
“It is always beautiful and always wonderful in London; I really enjoy it here,” Bolt said. “It is just an extremely great stadium and I am happy.”
Bolt isn’t happy, though, with the country’s tax laws.
He only returned to London to compete because the British Government agreed to an amnesty that allowed international athletes to compete tax-free at this meet as they did at the Olympics. Taxes are usually imposed on appearance fees and prize money for non-resident athletes in all sports when in action here.
Bolt said returning here to race “depends on what the tax laws say; if they say it’s OK I will be here next year”.
A tax exemption is in place for the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, next year, but Bolt is not committing to competing in the Scottish city.
And the Government does not appear willing to waive its tax rules whenever it suits Bolt.
“You have to be a little bit careful about this,” Sports Minister Hugh Robertson told The Associated Press. “We have a very straightforward modus operandi with the Treasury, whereby whenever we need a tax break for a particular event we make the case, they look at it and they have been very good at granting it, as they were for Usain Bolt.
“You have to just realise, though, that all these decisions are taken against the backdrop of the national economy and giving tax breaks to wealthy sports stars when the economy is in the state it is at the moment, is something that needs careful decision on a case-by-case basis.”
Mo Farah also made a winning return to the Olympic Stadium, treating the home crowd to a dominant victory in the 3,000m.
The Briton produced a devastating final lap, storming in front with around 500m to go to win in 7 minutes, 36.85 seconds — more than five seconds ahead of Ryan Hill of the United States.
“It’s great to be back,” said Farah, who won the 5,000m and 10,000m double at the Olympics. “It was a good race and the crowd were great … I wanted to make them proud.”
Other Olympic champions also replicated their success in London.
Sally Pearson won the 100m hurdles in 12.65, around a tenth of a second ahead of Tiffany Porter of Britain. It was a disappointing day for another Briton, however, as Olympic heptathlon champion Jessica Ennis-Hill finished fourth in the race, as she had just returned from injury.
Pearson has been struggling with hamstring problems this season, but looks to be finding her form ahead of the World Championships in Moscow.
“Everyone told me to be patient and believe in myself and that’s what I’ve done,” she said. “It’s three weeks yesterday to my race at the World Championships, so it’s finally coming together. My form is slowly coming back … there are a lot of parts of the race I can fix.”
The 110m hurdles was won by David Oliver, the American who failed to qualify for the Olympics last year.
Olympic champion Aries Merritt clipped a hurdle and went out.
In the pole vault, Renaud Lavillenie achieved a worldleading 6.02 metres, but failed three times to overhaul Sergei Bubka’s world record of 6.14 that has stood since 1994.
In the shot put, Valerie Adams was crowned a winner while still in the Olympic Stadium, this time by throwing 20.90 metres. The New Zealander belatedly won Olympic gold after the London event when Nadzeya Ostapchuk of Belarus was disqualified for doping.