Lightning Bolt joins Olympic sprint doubles club after blitzing the Beijing 200m field

Usain Bolt joined an exclusive club when he stormed to victory in the 200 metres final at the Bird's Nest in a new world record time of 19.30 seconds.

The 21-year-old Jamaican became just the ninth man in modern Olympic history to complete the 100m and 200m sprint double.

He is the first man since Carl Lewis at Los Angeles in 1984 to complete the feat.

Bolt, who casually shaved 0.03 seconds off his own record in winning the 100 metres title in sensational style on Saturday, clocked 19.30secs to break Michael Johnson's 12-year-old record of 19.32s.


The 21-year-old, who turns 22 tomorrow, made a brilliant start and was already well clear of the field coming into the straight.

But unlike the 100m final, where he began celebrating well before the line, this time he sprinted through the tape to initially stop the clock at 19.31s, a time that was swiftly rounded down to 19.30s.

Churandy Martina, of the Dutch Antilles, took silver in 19.82.

American Wallace Spearmon crossed the line in third place in 19.95 but was disqualified for running out of his lane and team-mate Shawn Crawford, who ran 19.96 was promoted to the bronze medal.

Britain's Christian Malcolm finished seventh in 20.40.
When Bolt set off on his lap of honour 'happy birthday' rang out over the tannoy.

Johnson had actually said earlier in the day that he felt his record would not
be broken tonight, but that it was only a matter of time before he could 'kiss
it goodbye.'

But Bolt had other ideas and the determination on his face was clear as he
powered down the home straight before glancing anxiously at the clock as he
crossed the line.

'In order to run 19.30 he has to run the curve better and hold his speed for longer,' Johnson had added earlier. "I didn't think he would run 9.69, but I think he could have run 9.62 if he had run to the finish and tied up his shoes.'

In the final event of the evening, Jamaica's Melaine Walker won gold in the 400m hurdles in a new Olympic record of 52.64s.

Walker powered off the final hurdle to finish comfortably ahead of American Sheena Tosta with Britain's Natasha Danvers putting an injury-plagued season behind her to snatch bronze.

Danvers was almost caught on the line by the fast-finishing Anastasiya Rabchenyuk of Ukraine and waited for confirmation from the giant scoreboard that she had held on to set a new personal best of 53.84.

It was then announced that the American team had launched a protest over Spearmon's disqualification from the 200m final.

OLYMPIC SPRINT DOUBLES


1904 Archie Hahn (United States)

1912 Ralph Craig (United States)

1928 Percy Williams (Canada)

1932 Eddie Tolan (United States)

1936 Jesse Owens (United States)

1956 Bobby Morrow (United States)

1972 Valeriy Borzov (Soviet Union)

1984 Carl Lewis (United States)

2008 Usain Bolt (Jamaica)

American great Michael Johnson hailed Usain Bolt's "incredible" achievement.

Johnson set a record of 19.32 seconds at the 1996 Olympics, and it was considered one of the toughest to beat in athletics.

However, Bolt sliced two-hundredths of a second from Johnson's time when winning
his second gold in Beijing in a time of 19.30secs.

'He got an incredible start,' said Johnson on BBC1. 'I looked at Colin Jackson and I said, 'Wow!'.

'It was much more of an amazing start than he got in the 100m and his turn was just absolutely fabulous.

'He wanted that record. This is his favourite event.

'He went for it. He came in here focused on it, knowing most likely he'd win the gold.

'The reason I felt he might not get it here was he wouldn't have been working on speed endurance, the ability to hold that speed for the entire race.

'But he showed that he had been working on that, and was able to bring home 19.30.

'Incredible time, incredible performance by Usain Bolt once again.

'Congratulations Usain.'