LONDON, (Reuters) – Silence will envelop the Olympic stadium on the evening of Aug. 5 while the world’s eight swiftest men crouch in their blocks awaiting the starter’s gun.
What happens in the split second after the gun fires and the stadium resounds to the clamour generated by 80,000 spectators will in all likelihood determine the result of the men’s 100 metres final.
If Usain Bolt’s troublesome right hamstring has healed and he gets a good start there is nobody in the world who can catch the defending champion. If he takes too long to unwind his long legs and body, his Jamaican club mate and world champion Yohan Blake is the probable winner.
The 100 metres is the most unforgiving of all foot races and one mistake by any of the finalists, as Bolt knows from bitter personal experience after false starting at the world championships last year, will mean the race is over.
Unlike the theatre, where Hamlet will always die in the final act, unpredictability and the unexpected give sport its special appeal and there are no guarantees that any of the contestants who line up in Saturday’s first round will still be contenders on Sunday night.
But if Bolt and Blake do come through unscathed, Sunday’s final will rival the Carl Lewis-Ben Johnson clash at the 1988 Seoul Olympics for drama and excitement.
The field should also feature American Tyson Gay and another Jamaican Asafa Powell who have both run faster than Blake plus the 2004 champion Justin Gatlin who has returned from a doping ban.
Jamaica is enjoying a remarkable era in both men’s and women’s sprinting. Jamaicans took five of the six medals at stake in the women’s 100 and 200 in Beijing four years ago as well as the 400 metres hurdles title.
Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce is the defending 100 metres champion and is the world leader this year with a time of 10.70 seconds. Her main challenge is likely to come from the American world champion Carmelita Jeter.
DUEL IN THE POOL
Swimming dominates the first week of the Games, athletics the second while gymnastics continues throughout at the North Greenwich Arena.
The Chinese won nine of the 14 gymnastics titles at stake in Beijing and seven out of eight in the men’s competition.
Japan’s Kohei Uchimura finished second in the all-around competition, after twice falling off the pommel horse, but has since won an unprecedented three successive world titles.
Now 23, Uchimura is known as “Super-mura” and in 2009 and 2011 he finished first in four of the six disciplines.
Already the pundits are calling the Japanese the greatest of all time, an accolade that will be confirmed if he performs as expected in London.
The swimming features another potentially thrilling individual duel between two athletes from the same country.
Michael Phelps, who won a record eight gold medals in Beijing, will attempt seven events this time before he retires.
In two of them, the 200 and 400 metres individual medley, he will come up against Ryan Lochte, who collected five gold medals at last year’s world championships and became the first swimmer to break a long course world record since controversial polyurethane suits were banned.
Lochte has featured in a series of photo shoots in which he displays the Olympic rings tattooed on his right bicep and an alligator on his shoulder.
The flash playboy image is misleading. There is no more dedicated trainer in or out of the water than Lochte, who believes his time has come.
“I have put in the work and it’s something that I believe so strongly that I know I can make that happen,” he said.
