Two more golds for immortality, says Bolt

“I told you guys I was going to do it”.

By the time he hit the finish line Bolt was pointing to his chest, where the only thing missing on his uniform was a Superman cape. He was followed by Gatlin (9.89) and Canada’s Andre De Grasse (9.91).

“It’s the most special because it’s the third”, said Bolt.

“I’m excited about what about to happen for the rest of the Olympics, I really want the 200m world record”, he said. “It goes together, competition, it all goes together for me”.

This is the third time Gatlin has finished second to Bolt.

Colombia’s world champion Caterine Ibarguen won the women’s triple jump with a leap of 15.17m which easily outstripped her rivals. “I will seek treatment immediately and hope to show fitness at the London Anniversary Games on July 22 to earn selection for the Olympic Games in Rio”, read the statement at the time.

The 6-foot-5 sprinter/celebrity overcame his typically slow unfurling from the blocks – he was second-to-last after the break. “I don’t know, I just bought it”, said the 52-year-old.

Churning his legs to gradually build up speed, he eventually caught Gatlin with about 40 meters left and took it to warp speed. Gatlin, evidently angry at his reception, crossed the line in 9.94secs and stormed off straight down the tunnel as the other runners stayed on the track shaking hands.

As he circled the blue track for his victory lap, he carried a giant stuffed Rio Olympics mascot, a metaphorical moment if ever there was one – Bolt carrying these Games by himself.

These are the Olympics when doping went from a whisper to a scream, and here you’d have a guy who twice failed drug tests and twice served suspensions.

If it would be an exaggeration to say that a Gatlin win would have destroyed the sport, it would certainly have provided an unseemly epitaph to the seemingly never-ending series of doping controversies and the cack-handed way in which they have been dealt with by the various layers of authority. And while Bolt was celebrating with anyone he could find, Gatlin was parading the American flag around the track virtually alone. The boos from the Brazilian crowd were the latest ugly chapter in Gatlin’s saga. But fans in the stadium bought into the “Good vs. Evil” storyline that has been pitched by the media for all these years, and they let the American have it.

“It wasn’t a flawless race but the fact that I won – we’re here to win – I’m happy with that”, Bolt said, attributing the slowish times to the 70-minute turnaround between semis and final.

After he crossed, Bolt raised the index finger, and then, the real party began.

A few minutes after the finish, Bolt was unlacing those now-famous gold spikes and taking selfies with the fans. He turned his yellow hat backward, kneeled down and gave the crowd what it really wanted – that famous, arching, “To the World” pose that he debuted eight years ago in Beijing.

The rolling chants of “Bolt, Bolt, Bolt!” began spreading around the rapidly filling arena even before the Jamaican superstar first appeared on the track to prepare for his semi-final. All my tattoos show what I’ve been through, the bad neighborhood and the life that I lived.

Yohan Blake called his compatriot and training partner “an icon and a true warrior of the sport”. Still, he has one of the fastest times in the world this year. He is a one-of-a-kind sprinter. It was her 3rd gold medal of this Rio Olympics, and she is still just 19!

And the jovial Jamaican is not done.

No one ever said Bolt was the most modest man on earth.

“Somebody said I can become immortal, ” said Bolt, 29.

American Allyson Felix looked ominous in her heat against the lady that many consider her biggest threat to the gold medal, Bahamian Shaunae Miller, but two Jamaicans will also be pushing for women’s 400m medals at 10:45 p.m. (8:45 p.m. Jamaica time).

A 16-month long independent analysis by The Associated Press has shown the water venues used by 1,400 athletes at the Rio Olympics are teeming with unsafe viruses from human sewage that could cause athletes to become ill.