Usain Bolt stays perfect at world track and field championships
Britain's Mo Farah makes history in winning another 5,000m-10,000m double
Usain Bolt is perfect yet again.
Dispelling two years of injury doubts, the Jamaican won three sprint gold medals this week for an overall world championship record of 11. The last of them came Saturday when he anchored the 4x100-metre relay team with free-flowing, giant strides that have made him an icon for the sport.
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"This is even better to me. Just to prove everybody wrong," Bolt said. "I came out and proved you can never count Usain Bolt out."
Behind him, the United States was far back in second place. But Justin Gatlin, who had been unbeaten in two seasons of sprinting, lost the chance for a third silver when the American team was disqualified for a bad exchange on the anchor leg.
According to Bolt, the Americans just couldn't deal with the situation of being the favourites.
"It is stress. It is pressure," Bolt said. "It is easy for people to chase people, but when you are the one being chased it is much harder."
The Americans lost their chance for a medal when they botched their last exchange, just as Bolt grabbed the baton for the last leg of the race.
"We looked good in prelims. We looked good in practice," Tyson Gay said after he got the baton to Mike Rodgers outside the exchange zone. "We just didn't get it around."
To the delight of the tens of thousands of fans in the Bird's Nest, China moved up to silver and Canada took bronze.
It was Bolt's third sprint triple in a row, starting at the London Olympics and continuing through the 2013 worlds in Moscow, and fifth overall.
For the Jamaicans, the women's 4x100 relay team made Saturday's sprint party complete.
They brought a smile to Bolt's face ahead of his race when they won gold, beating the U.S. team with a championship record and the second fastest time in history at 41.07. It also was the second gold for Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce.
Unbeatable Farah
Earlier, Mo Farah joined Bolt with a third straight double in individual events at global competitions since winning the 5,000 and 10,000 metres at the London Olympics. After defending the 10,000 world title on the opening day last weekend, he had a relatively easy race in the 5,000 on Saturday.
Hanging back in last place for the first two kilometres, Farah then quickly moved up. When Caleb Ndiku sought to sprint away over the last lap, Farah kept the Kenyan in check and beat him in the finishing straight.
"It felt amazing," said Farah, who ran 13:50.38 in a race that started out at a jogging pace before winding up into a furious extended sprint.
"I didn't feel great, my hammy (hamstring) was playing up a bit, but the medical team helped me through it and tonight to come out here and make a double means so much to me," Farah told the BBC.
Ever since the 2012 Olympics, Farah has been unbeatable over the long distance races and has six major gold medals to show for it. Only Bolt has done similar.
Canada's Mohammed Ahmed was 12th in the 5,000m in 14:00.38, giving Canada its best finish ever in the event.
"I felt a little bit lethargic, a bit heavy, it was really hot," Ahmed said. "I had nothing left, I was kicking and trying to go with it, tried to give myself a chance with the last 200-metres but they just ran away from me."