JAMAICA’S Double Olympic Sprint Champion Usain Bolt’s Is Back
JAMAICA’S double Olympic sprint champion Usain Bolt is scheduled to make his return to the track at Saturday’s Camperdown Classic after cutting his injury-plagued season short last August.
Bolt, who ran just three races in 2014, has been entered for the Valentine’s Day Camperdown Classic on February 14 at the National Stadium.
Following his 9.98sec victory in Poland on August 23, the Racers Track Club announced that Bolt would be shutting down his season while healthy in favour of his preparations for the 2015 season which includes the World Championships in Beijing, China.
The 28-year-old Bolt is the reigning Olympic champion in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay events and the first man to win six Olympic gold medals in sprinting. He is also the first to achieve a “double double” by winning 100m and 200m titles at consecutive Olympics (2008 and 2012), and went even further with the “double triple”, which includes the 4x100m relay.
Bolt’s Racers Track Club teammates, including Commonwealth Games 100m champion Kemar Bailey-Cole, and Olympic 200m bronze medallist Warren Weir have all been entered for the meet, which will be the second of the six Digicel Grand Prix Athletics Series.
The status of Yohan Blake, the 2011 100m World Champion, is not clear.
The Camperdown Classic will also see the return of Melanie Walker, the 2008 Olympic 400m hurdles and 2009 World Championships gold medallist.
Walker holds the Olympic 400m hurdles record of 52.64 seconds set at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and 52.42 seconds done at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin, Germany, which is the second fastest of all time. The 30-year-old has indicated that she wants to run the shorter 100m hurdles and it will be interesting to see which event she participates in.
Kerron Stewart, the 2008 Olympic 100m silver medallist along with Schillonie Calvert and Ristananna Tracey are also entered for the meet.
jamaica observer