Usain Bolt sets a new Olympic benchmark

Carl Lewis has always ranted against athletes who may have taken drugs in order to discredit Ben Johnson's obliteration of him in the 1988 Olympics. The reality is that Johnson destroyed him and those who say the victory doesn't count should consider the following: 'In 2003, the U.S. Olympic Committee's former director for drug control, Dr. Wade Exum, revealed that Lewis had tested positive for small amounts of three banned stimulants at the 1988 Olympic Trials. The U.S. Olympic Committee neither banned Lewis nor released the test results publicly' This is perhaps why Lewis continues to lambast other sprinters: to turn the focus from himself and the fact that Johnson thrashed him. There are two great sprints in modern professional Olympic history: 1) B.Johnson 1988 2) M.Johnson 1996 Bolt's really great race was the 9.58 World Championships. He would have done it this Olympics but for the slow start: hopefully at the next Olympics we'll get to see him run his very fastest in the final instead of slowing down or getting a bad start.

Bolt's record in 100m is 9.58 sec. The record for the fastest 100m by a cheetah is 5.95 sec. So Bolt is just 3.63 sec behind. Incredible. I have always watched running races on tv but never been to a stadium. Want to be there though.

Bolt is the best thing that has happened to athletics in years, probably since the amazing Michael Johnson. Simply awesome. Sure he carries on a bit, but at least he has charisma. Bolt talks it and walks it, unlike a certain Australian 400 metre relay runner............. Rudisha was absolutley brilliant. Runners of these guys ilk don't come a long that often, and both should be appreciated for who and what they are

2 great performances, 2 great champions in Rudisha and Bolt. But the comparison ends here. One is humble and reserved while the other one is full of himself and arrogant. Rudisha's the man.

Out of the 500 odd sub 10sec 100 metre sprints, West Africans or sprinters of West African descent from Jamaica, USA, UK, etc have run all but 2, aussie Patrick Johnson, and white Frenchman Christian Lemaitre account for the two. Love Bolt, great showman, and seems like a geniune nice guy.

Unrealistic to us, most definitely. But I would rather have a team that really believed they could do well and busted their guts trying to reach unrealistic expectations because you just never know what could happen. The other team might just drop their bundle. Unlikely I admit but you gotta give yourself every chance. Just in case a miracle happens. Only problem is that people may bag you for even daring to dream..

Does this mean that if Dibaba does her double double tonight you will rank her as high as Bolt?

I wasn't suggesting that Solomon's claims were in anyway unsportmanlike, merely that they were extravagant and not at all realistic (although I fully understand that he would have been feeling very confident). If the relay team had gotten into the final and even if each one of them ran their PBs they still would not have been within cooee of a gold medal short of half the other competitiors dropping the baton.

Ah forget about Bolt and Rudisha, Katie Taylor's gold medal in the women's boxing was the moment of the day. Certainly the best atmosphere so far in the games.

Extravagant claims ? What I read was that they are feeling good and are a formidable team. Wilson then writes that there's a belief in the team that they can medal or get the gold. Is this somehow unsportsmanlike ? Believing in yourself and the team ? Did they run to their potential ? No. That sucks but it happens. Solomon had just run his three best times ever on the biggest stage of all. He's feeling good and the team is trying to feed off his performances. Why would you want to bag him or the team for that ? As an athlete to achieve you really must believe that you can do it. I don't think that there's one successful athlete out there who doesn't believe in themselves. The mens 400 relay team believed in themselves but came up short. Why you would want to bag them for believing in themselves ?

Absolutely. Incredible. Bloody nuts, but incredible.

It's interesting how many of our Olympic gold medals are combacks from failures in Beijing. Our sailors, the canoeists, all have stories of devastation in Beijing, even Sally Pearson and Anna Meares were backing up from silver. I think Magnussen and some other dissapointments who were coming in as world champs and stuff need to be put into perspective. The Olympics are just on another level of commitment and performance. I don't think kids should be either satisfied or truly disappointed with silver. But I'd like us to back guys like Magnussen and Watt and our young swimmers and divers to take silver as a positive and to back up with the countries support even harder next time for another shot at gold.

Yeah Sheek I don't think it's been the disaster it's been portrayed as. We've bombed a few medals, like 4x100 relay and Russell Marks, but we've had a lot of very good performances too. All countries have bombed opportunities anyway.

What unsportsmanlike behaviour was that? Big allegation.

Hi David, Around the traps. Usain Bolt is now probably the greatest sprinter athlete in history. Jesse Owens would be the only serious challenger. Carl Lewis is carrying on like the bitter old man he is. He only brings discredit to himself. The loss by the Kookaburras (for the gold medal) is hard to digest, but the warning signs were there in the pools, when they were held to two draws after leading to nil on both occasions. There was a soft mental underbelly that was cleverly exposed by the ruthless Germans. Rick Charlesworth is a genius, but even he couldn't turn around the apparent 'curse' of the Kookabuuras, who are often unbeatable until they show up for the Olympics. Like rugby, hockey is a technically demanding sport. And I don't think Aussies are comfortable being confined by technicalities. Equestrian is another example. We do very well at eventing, which requires skill & endurance & certain freedom of expression, but the technicalities of dressage & show jumping are generally not for us. On another note, if we look at the medal table in terms of overall medals won, Australia is actually in 8th place (France is 7th due winning two extra gold medals). 1. USA - 90 medals/39 gold. 2. China - 80/37. 3. Russia- 56/12. 4. Great Britain - 52/25. 5. Germany - 37/10. 6. Japan - 33/4. 7. France - 29/8. 8. Australia - 29/6. 9. Nice Korea - 25/12. 10. Italy - 19/7. Some observations about the medal table. If Australia has had trouble winning gold medals, then what about Russia (12 out of 56), Germany (10 out of 37) or Japan (just 4 out of 33)? Former powerhouses Russia & Germany have certainly come back to the field. Neither would be happy with their returns at these games. And there appears to be a greater spread of medals than ever before.

Yes, Rudisha's 800m was the best performance of track so far. He is a great runner, as is Bolt.

David that's not what I said. I said Bolt's wasn't the best performance of the night. And it wasn't.

I agree with Lordy, what Bolt did was historic, incredible stuff. The Kookas were a massive disappointment althought there form in the pool stages was patchy ( 2 draws ) so perhaps maybe not unexpected. Well done to Brittany and the Stingers !

How were the Kookaburra's unsportsmanlike? - having watched the game they were just played over in the second half. The Germans really turned the screws and the Aussies were unable to match them. But at no time did I see anything 'unsportsmanlike' from either team. It was a high skill game played hard and fair by both sides.