Usain Bolt fears slow start could damage world bid

London: Usain Bolt admitted he will have little chance of winning another world championship title unless he sorts out his lethargic start after storming to victory at the London Diamond League on Friday.

The Jamaican star also insisted “there was still room for improvement” despite returning to somewhere near his explosive best when winning the 100m at the Olympic Stadium.

The fastest man on the planet, and athletics’ greatest entertainer, gave his rivals a decent start before he produced a show-stopping performance as he dashed to victory in 9.85sec, a season’s best.

It is not the first time that the Olympic champion and world record holder has been tardy out of the traps and not the first time he has managed to show the speed and power to burst through the field and take the tape in front.

Bolt returned to the scene of his heroics in London 2012 and the 60,000 Olympic Stadium crowd roared him on as he beat off America’s Michael Rodgers (9.98) and compatriot Nesta Carter (9.99).

Afterwards he did a lap of honour in front of a frenzied crowd, knelt down to kiss the track in his traditional style and then threw his spikes to a lucky punter before shooting off into the night.

But Bolt admits he needs to put things right quickly before taking his place in the world championships in Moscow next month.

“If I start like that in the world championships I will probably finish fifth. I need to work with my coach and figure out how to be more explosive out of the blocks and not so slow,” said Bolt.

“But my coach tells me I am not a good starter anyway and just to focus on my running. I know what mistakes I made in the last world championships and executed the start very well in the Olympics.

“I am not worried because my mind set is always different and better come major championships. Maybe I will be back to my fastest and best by Moscow.”

Asked whether he will return to London to run again, Bolt, who only agreed to take up his estimated £500,000 (Dh2.8 million) fee when a tax deal was agreed with the British government, joked: “That depends on the tax situation.

“No, I love coming here. The fans give you so much energy as they did for me a year ago and this is what makes me run faster.

“I felt good tonight and I am pleased with the time I did even if I was a little slow off the blocks and I had to play catch up. There is a lot of room for improvement. I am getting there and Moscow is going to be great.”

Bolt has taken his time this year returning to the kind of form which has won him six Olympic golds and that magnificent treble in east London twelve months ago.

But, with rivals Tyson Gay and Asafa Powell out of the running due to a doping controversy, Bolt looks to be peaking at the right time.

Earlier in the night, as the stadium was still filling up, Bolt was driven around the track in a cold war-era rocket ship that burped fire out of its exhaust. There was a whiff of Spinal Tap about the stunt but Bolt, clutching a Jamaican flag and wearing Ray Bans as he saluted the crowd, just about pulled it off.

And it certainly shifted the crowd’s excitement levels up a few gears. And quickly the once-familiar became familiar again as 65,000 people in the Olympic Stadium rediscovered the vague yet warming charms of an old flame. Year-old London 2012 T-shirts were resuscitated from airing cupboards. Small ‘p’ patriotism was evident in the claps and cheers for British athletes, and in Poundland Union Jack flags.

Even David Bowie’s Heroes, which became the unofficial anthem of the Games, got a hearing.

Summer of 2012

It could have been the summer of 2012 all over again. Except that the decibel levels were a little lower and the weather was behaving itself. It was 25C at trackside and the heat — combined with the ultrafast red Mondo track and a pleasant tailwind provided a ready-made template for quick times.

By the time the men’s 200m came round halfway through the night, London’s clammy-mitten humidity had evaporated too. The Jamaican Warren Weir took advantage by running a perfect bend before storming to victory in 19.89sec, ahead of his fellow countryman Jason Young, who ran 19.99 sec in second.

Only Bolt and Tyson Gay have run the 200m quicker than Weir this year. And with Gay likely to serve a lengthy suspension following his recent positive drugs test and last year’s 200m silver medallist Yohan Blake injured, Weir is the man most likely to take the fight to Bolt at the world championships in Moscow.

Afterwards he was certainly talking the talk, saying: “I am pretty pleased with 19.89. I am confident going into the World Champs that I can run my race and win.”

But as Weir soared, the British athletes stuttered. Richard Kilty finished seventh in 20.57sec, James Ellington eighth in 20.62sec and Delano Williams, who switched nationality from the Turks and Caicos Islands earlier this year and will compete for Britain at the world championships in Moscow, was last in 20.74sec.

Kilty, who was passed over for selection for Moscow in favour of Williams, said: “I had a hamstring problem all week and even in warm-up, I was debating whether to run, it was that painful.

“So to come out here and perform how I did was great. I’m glad to be the best of the Brits, especially seeing as I didn’t get selected for Moscow. I was going out there to try to prove a point.”

There was more woe for Britain in the high jump as the Olympic bronze medallist Robbie Grabarz could only manage 2.24m — 13cm below his personal best — while the promising 20-year-old Allan Smith bowed out at 2.20m. The event was won by the Ukrainian Bohdan Bondarenko, who twice attempted an audacious world record of 2.47m before settling for victory with 2.38m.

Elsewhere the reigning world and Olympic champion Kirani James won the men’s 400m in 44.66sec, easing home in the last 50 metres to pip the American Tony McQuay. Britain’s Nigel Levine finished sixth in 45.58sec with Conrad Williams last in 46.43sec.

In the men’s 800m Nick Symmonds sprang a minor surprise as he ran a season’s best 1:43.67 to beat his fellow Americans Duane Solomon and Brandon Johnson.

Earlier in the evening Adam Gemili ran a season’s best of 10.16sec as he came from behind to beat Harry Aikines-Aryeetey in a photo finish in the all-British 100m B race. Gemili, who reached the semi-finals of the 100m at the Olympics last year, claimed: “This is brilliant, the atmosphere is exactly the same as last summer.”

It wasn’t quite. Not yet. But with Mo Farah and Jessica Ennis competing on Saturday afternoon that might have changed.