Usain Bolt and Armand Duplantis throughout a Puma occasion in Tokyo forward of the World Athletics Championships, Tokyo, Japan – September 11, 2025 Usain Bolt poses forward of the World Athletics Championships. — Reuters
Usain Bolt, whose 9.58 seconds world report for the 100 metres is now 16 years outdated, stated he might have run 9.42 within the carbon-plated “super-spikes” that right now’s sprinters are racing in.
The Jamaican set his mark on the 2009 world championships in Berlin, breaking his personal 9.69 report from the earlier 12 months’s Beijing Olympics, and it has now stood for longer than the 14 years of Jim Hines’s 9.95 set on the 1968 Mexico Metropolis Olympics.
Analysis by Puma, the corporate that shod him via his wonderful period of dominance, predicted that Bolt would run 9.42 in right now’s sneakers and, talking at an occasion forward of the world championships in Tokyo, he stated: “I fully agree.”
“Someone who continued after I retired was Shelly-Anne Fraser-Pryce and I saw what she did – she got faster with the spikes,” Bolt stated on Thursday.
“I probably would have run way faster if I’d continued and if I knew that spikes would have got to that level maybe I would have, because it would have been great to compete at that level and running that fast.”
Bolt’s compatriot Kishane Thompson ran 9.75 on the Jamaican championships in June—the quickest time by anybody for 10 years to make him the sixth-fastest of all time— however Bolt stated he was not anxious about anybody breaking his report anytime quickly.
“I think the talent is there and those who are coming up will do well but, at this present moment, I don’t think they will be able to break the world record,” he stated.
Bolt retired in 2017 with six Olympic and 7 world particular person 100m and 200m golds, and no Jamaican man has gained a worldwide dash title since his Rio Olympic double in 2016.
Thompson got here inside 5 thousandths of a second of ending the drought when he was pipped on the road by Noah Lyles in final 12 months’s Olympic 100m remaining and Bolt says he, or compatriot Indirect Seville, might go one higher in Sunday’s 100 metres.
“I think we have a very good chance this year. Kishane and Oblique have really showed this season that they’re really doing extremely well,” Bolt stated.
“I’m looking forward to it, I mean they should be one-two because they’ve proved they are running fast times so it’s just all about execution. So I’m happy to go into the stadium and see and hopefully I’ll be able to present the gold medal to one of them.”
‘Different breed’
Tokyo would be the first world athletics occasion Bolt has attended since his farewell on the London world championships in 2017, although whether or not he presents the medals is prone to rely upon who’s doing the receiving.
Bolt may discover himself in any other case engaged whether it is defending champion Lyles on the highest step.
He stated he has no points with the American, regardless of having a social media spat with him a number of years again, and regardless of Lyles getting underneath Jamaica’s pores and skin by saying that he had Thompson “in his pocket” earlier this season.
“I don’t think Noah is as crazy as dealing with Justin (Gatlin), so for me it’s no different,” Bolt stated of his former rival.
“I believe Gatlin through the years, we pushed backwards and forwards, however he was a distinct breed as a result of he got here up within the period the place trash speaking was simply regular to all people.
