Usain Bolt continued from where he left at the Beijing Games. The Berlin world championships established his superhuman status once again.

By Mahim Gupta

The year after Olympics is usually a pale shadow of its predecessor. Even as world athletics suffered the hangover from the 2008 Beijing Games, Usain ‘lightning’ Bolt refused to let 2009 pass by as just another year. With Bolt in picture, how can life on track not be interesting?

The Jamaican ace took off from where he had left in China. After a golden summer in the land of the Great Wall, Bolt was hungry as ever to speed through the Berlin Wall this time. And conquer Berlin, he did at the 2009 world championships in Germany.

After stamping his dominance in 100m and 200m last year, the ace sprinter had in mind a new quest - a goal to crack the 400m world record by 2010. So, it wasn’t surprising when the Jamaican ace started the season competing in over 400 m races. At Kingston, the speed king clocked 45.54 s where he won two races to remain on track in his quest for more glory.

But, a freak car crash in late April hit him with leg injuries that required a minor surgery. The rehab hampered his preparations, but only just. Gold in the 150m at Manchester Great City Games, 100m and 200m titles at the Jamaican national championships ensured Bolt’s passage to the August world championships in Germany.

Berlin bows to Bolt

Indomitable Bolt breezed through the 100m clocking a world record 9.58 seconds. Tyson Gay finished at 9.71s, 0.02s off Bolt's 9.69 s world-record sprint in Beijing. After Gay pulled out of the 200m event, the Jamaican star broke ground again, as he clocked 19.19 to break his own record by 0.11 seconds. Consequently, he won the race with the biggest margin in world championships history. Later, he also picked up the 4x100 metres relay gold for Jamaica.

Despite being ‘bolt’ed, the Americans beat the Jamaicans by three gold pieces, picking up ten in all at Berlin. And, a special mention for the cheerful, never-tiring Kenenisa Bekele. The Ethiopian distance runner made the 5000 and 1000 metres his own to take his world championship gold tally to five.

Fittingly, eight months after bagging the 2009 Laureus Sportsman of the Year winner, the 22-year-old Jamaican thunder was named the World Athlete of the Year at the IAAF gala event at Monaco in November. American Sanya Richards ran away with the award in the female category for winning the 400m in Berlin. Sanya thanked Bolt for being an inspiration.

Off the track, Bolt grabbed the eyeballs as he adopted a Cheetah (named Lightning Bolt) during his visit to Kenya in November. Whether the fastest man on earth is going to start training with the fastest animal still remains to be seen. Whichever way, they make a deadly combo!

Queen Isinbayeva dethroned

While the Jamaican king ruled the tracks, field queen Yelena Isinbayeva lost her pole vault crown. After clinching two gold medals each at the Olympics and the world championships, between 2004 and 2008, the Russian ace failed to do an encore at Berlin. It was also Isinbayeva’s second loss of the year. Polish pole vaulter Anna Rogowska beat the two-time Olympic gold medallist to the top prize at the London Grand Prix in May as well as in Berlin. The only high for the nine-time major champion, Isinbayeva, came when she beat Venus Williams and golfer Lorena Ochoa for the Laureus Sportswoman of the Year award.

The Semenya controversy

World athletics wasn’t free of its share of controversies. The 2009 season was struck by a shameful storm involving South African Caster Semenya, who won the 800 gold at Berlin. The graceful, 18-year-old in a female outfit was suspected to be a man. Some haze still lurks around this incident with the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) puzzled itself. Though the federation allowed Semenya to keep the medal, it struggled to find the decency to apologise for the ‘identity’ crisis.

Lot of ground to cover for Indians

While Jamaica continued to flaunt their riches on the track, poverty prevailed at the Indian athletics camp. Six of the Indian representatives who were selected for the Berlin championships, failed to get past the qualification level. 

Back home, Bhopal hosted the 49th edition of the National Open Athletics Championships in October. B.G. Nagraj of Railways beat the field to the gold in the men’s 100 metres clocking 10.55 secs (which is almost a full second behind Bolt).

Railways domination continued on the women’s front as Sharda Narayan won the 100m gold in 11.71 secs. The 200 metres men’s gold went to Mohammad Abdul Nazeeb Qureshi of Andhra in 21.21 secs. K. Soujanya, also of Andhra, was victorious in the women’s category in 24.16 secs. Railways won the overall championship for the fifth consecutive time.