Men's 100m Match-Up: Usain Bolt and Yohan Blake

Usain Bolt

Yohan Blake

With the unfortunate withdrawal of Asafa Powell many track pundits say Usain Bolt is all but guaranteed the gold. However I wholeheartedly disagree. Here's why:

Yohan Blake stands as the  No. 1 reason Bolt should NOT take this race lightly. His 22 year old team mate and training partner has had an impressive season with several notable performances. Among them is his wind assisted 9.80 clocking at the Jamaica invitational meet in May. Blake's personal best remains the 9.89sec set in London last year making him the 5th fastest Jamaican ever in the event.

Nesta Carter is another to be concerned about. Bolt would do well to remember the eventful race in Monaco, where for a minute, It seemed Carter had miraculously beaten the record holder to the line. Bolt may not be so lucky this time around. Carter's consistency is a bit shaky but he does have a personal best of 9.78sec, which ranks him as the 3rd fastest Jamaican in the 100m.

America's best medal hope lies squarely on the shoulders of their national champion Walter Dix . If the Gods are in his favour, he may very well sneak away with the bronze. However, he'll have to get past yet another Jamaican Michael Frater, whose unexpected inclusion in the line-up has him raring to go. Frater's lifetime best of 9.88sec equals Bolt's best effort this season.



Christophe Lemaitre

 Despite displaying much potential I do not see a medal for France's Christophe Lemaitre, but he does have the talent to possibly make it to the final. Lemaitre should take heart in the fact that this will be a great training ground for next year's Olympics.

Antigua's Daniel Bailey and Trinidad and Tobago's Richard Thompson are undoubtedly class sprinters but sadly their form is not quite as good as it was say two years ago.


So what's my conclusion? It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out Bolt is still the favourite, but the once "other-worldly" sprinter is now within the same realm of his competitors. Both Bolt and Blake are characteristically bad starters but look for them at the the finish line. With a good start, Bolt can still pull this off, though not with as big a margin as we are used to seeing.

I think it boils down to who wants it more. Bolt hates losing and needs to prove to the world he still has it. On the other hand Blake, a former world Junior Champion has long been heralded as Jamaica's next great sprinter and needs this win to prove he's finally arrived.