On this day 3 September 2011 (Exactly 9 years ago today) Following his disqualification in the 100m, Jamaica’s Usain Bolt run a season best 19.40 to win the 200m at the 13th World Athletics Championships in Daegu, South Korea.
Remembering his false start in the 100 metres, favorite Bolt had the slowest reaction time to the gun, but cruised easily into the semi-finals.
The semi-finals began with another false start, but it was Sandro Viana. Christophe Lemaitre led the qualifying winning semi 1, as Bolt casually cruised through semi 2 and Walter Dix ran a controlled semi 3.
The final was Bolt’s redemption. Still cautious, Bolt had the slowest reaction time in the field, but he easily charged into the lead, making up the stagger on Dix 2/3 of the way through the turn as returning silver medalist Alonso Edward pulled up.
Bolt made one glance back at Dix and the rest of the field, then charged home in 19.40 his third best time, the number four time ever.
Dix was clearly second in 19.70, with Christophe Lemaitre separating from Jaysuma Saidy Ndure in 19.80, the French National Record for the bronze medal.
The rest of the field was more than 3/10ths of a second behind. Note these were Fully automatic times, it was just a fluke that all the medal times were evenly divisible by a tenth of a second.
Elsewhere;
On this day 3 September 1908 (Exactly 112 years ago today) The only Canadian world heavyweight boxing champion, Tommy Burns knocked out Australian Bill Lang in 6th round in Melbourne in a warmup fight for his famous title bout with Jack Johnson
On this day 3 September 1911(Exactly 109 years ago today) William Larned won his 5th consecutive and 7th overall US Open singles title; beat Maurice McLoughlin 6-4, 6-4, 6-2
On this day 3 September 1960 (Exactly 60 years ago today) The United States women’s 4 x 100m freestyle relay team of Joan Spillane, Shirley Stobs, Carolyn Wood & Chris von Saltza swum world record 4:08.9 to beat Australia by 2.4 seconds and won gold medal at Rome Olympics.
On this day 3 September 1972 (Exactly 48 years ago today) American swimmer Mark Spitz won the coveted 100m gold medal in world record 51.22 at the Munich Olympics; completed the freestyle sprint double having already won 200m in world record 1:52.78
On this day 3 September 1972 (Exactly 48 years ago today) Finnish runner Lasse Virén scored a famous victory in the 10,000m at the Munich Olympics in world record 27:38.35
On this day 3 September 1989 (Exactly 31 years ago today) American tennis star Chris Evert beat 15-year-old Monica Seles 6-0, 6-2 in a 4th round match for her 101st and last US Open singles victory.
On this day 3 September 2006 (Exactly 14 years ago today) Andre Agassi lost to 112th-ranked Benjamin Becker of Germany 7-5, 6-7, 6-4, 7-5 in the 3rd round at the US Open in his final career match; 8-time Grand Slam winner finished with record of 870-274
By: George ‘Alan Green’ Mahamah
