HW #3, Due Monday, September 8th!

HW #3: Read this new Bolt Article about his 200m win and find all 6 of the 5W’s and H.

See you in class!

-Mr. Donohue


Bolt Breaks World Record and Wins Gold Again

By LYNN ZINSER

BEIJING — The margin of victory seemed almost impossible. His finishing time, a sport-shattering moment. Just days after Usain Bolt electrified track and field with a world-record run for the ages in the 100 meters, he might have outdone himself in the 200.

Jamaica’s wunderkind surged so far ahead of a stellar Olympic final field Wednesday night that the final 50 meters inspired sheer awe. Running hard through the finish, Bolt not only ran 19.30, breaking the world record by two-hundredths of a second less than two hours before his 22nd birthday, but he seemed to set new parameters on what humans can achieve.

This time, unlike in the 100 meters, Bolt ran hard the entire race, clearly wanting to show what he can do when he is serious. In the 100, he essentially stopped racing with about 10 meters to go, threw out his arms and slapped his chest before he crossed the finish line. That made his time of 9.69 — .03 better than the world record — that much more astounding because it could have been even lower.

In the 200, Bolt overpowered the field in the turn, entering the straightaway with the only question left being how much would he win by and would he break the world record. That was 19.32 seconds, set by the American Michael Johnson at the 1996 Atlanta Games. Before Wednesday night, Johnson’s record run was the only performance under 19.62. Bolt’s previous personal best was 19.67.

“I didn’t think I’d see under .30 in my lifetime,” said Renaldo Nehemiah, a former gold medalist in the 100 hurdles. “He’s a freak of nature. He did it at 14 and he did it at 17. Most people aren’t surprised he did it. They might be surprised he did it here, but it was inevitable.”

Churandy Martina of Netherlands Antilles crossed the finish line second and Wallace Spearmon of the United States in third, but shortly after the three apparent medalists started a victory lap, everything behind Bolt got complicated.

First, the scoreboard showed that Spearmon had been disqualified and it was later revealed he had stepped out of his lane in the curve. That made Shawn Crawford of the United States the bronze medalist. But while the United States team filed a protest of Spearmon’s disqualification, it pointed out that it believed Martina had also run out of his lane.

Later, Martina was also disqualified, making Shawn Crawford the silver medalist with Walter Dix of the United States winning the bronze.

But the wonder over Bolt’s accomplishments were not the least bit affected by the protest of the events behind him.

“What Bolt has done, he’s made history,” Crawford said. “He added spirit to the sport. He danced for us in the introduction. He danced for us at the end. He put on a show. To me, I feel like, him and athletics is like Michael Phelps and swimming. He raised the bar for us in athletics.”

Said Kim Collins of St. Kitts and Nevis, who finished seventh in the race,” It’s ridiculous. How fast can you go before the world record can’t be broke? How fast can the human being go before there’s no more going fast?”