Rio de Janeiro: Sprint superstar Usain Bolt revealed on Friday that he will put back his planned retirement until 2017 at the request of his sponsors.
The six-time Olympic gold medallist and 100m and 200m world record holder intended to retire from the track after the 2016 Rio Olympics, but he told a news conference on Friday that he will compete for a further extra year.
“I think I’m going to do another year. My sponsors asked me to do one more year, so I will compete until 2017,” said the 27-year-old Jamaican.
If he sticks to his plan then Bolt’s last competition is likely to be the 2017 world championships in London.
Bolt, meanwhile, expects to run under 10 seconds in a 100-metre race set up on a Rio de Janeiro beach this weekend.
Bolt says Sunday’s race is “going to be a test” to see where he’s at with his preparations this season. He will be competing against three other sprinters in the “Mano a Mano Challenge” on a track at Leme beach.
He said on Friday that he “felt pretty good” after running at the Commonwealth Games earlier this month in Glasgow and “should” run “under 10 seconds, no problem,” on Sunday.
Bolt, the world record holder in the 100 metres with 9.58 seconds, also said he is looking forward to coming to the 2016 Rio Olympics next year to try to “push my legend status to a higher level.”
